The Priceless Gift

"Nations will rise and fall. Wars will be lost and won. Lives will begin and end, but a true friend is eternal." ~Jon Koroluk

Happy Holidays to you!

No matter what your faith, if any, I wanted to wish you all the best and I hope that the coming year brings you much joy and fulfillment.

Ok, I must wax sentimental here for a moment. At this time of year when we gather together from far away or even next door from one another, we usually exchange gifts. It is a custom and it is wonderful to share things with one another but honestly, to be together and to have our health is the greatest gift of all. I guess I'm being quite George Bailey about all of this but it is true: hold close to you not the present that is given but the person giving it . THERE is the real gift.

I have a small immediate family. I am an only child so it is VERY small...but we are large in gratitude for the fact that we are all together. So often illness or a sudden flux in life jars us back to appreciating the very things that we sometimes take for granted: friends, family and our health. We are having a very small and humble Christmas, which is just fine by us. We have many years of great memories of large gaggles of kids and parents gathered around a turkey that seemed to strain the legs of the dining room table. Well, times change and given that I am vegan now there's Tofurkey instead of turkey and no leaves are added to our table as our family is rather far flung geographically. However, misting over with nostalgia can be counterproductive. I look to the present....to what is here and now, WHO is here and now...and appreciate every second with them.

Take some time over the holidays to reflect on the year that is almost over. What have you accomplished or hoped to accomplish? What dreams have become reality? Which ones continue to elude you and how can you make them happen? This past year was a watershed one for me. I have traveled and experienced so much, made amazing friends which I will have for the rest of my life and grown as an artist through these experiences. I have realized how full the world is, in every sense of the word. I realize that anything is attainable with enough hard work and the belief in yourself to buoy you along. Yet all we need is right beside us too, with friends and family that stand by us in the hard times. Truly, these are the best gifts of all.

I urge you to cherish your time with friends and loved ones this holiday season. Rejoice that you are together! If you are not together, for whatever reason, rest in the hope that you will see them soon and hold them tightly in your heart. If they are far away there is always Skype to bridge the gap.

With Joy!

Heather

"What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life-to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories."~George Eliot

The Priceless Gift

"Nations will rise and fall. Wars will be lost and won. Lives will begin and end, but a true friend is eternal." ~Jon Koroluk

Happy Holidays to you! 

No matter what your faith, if any, I wanted to wish you all the best and I hope that the coming year brings you much joy and fulfillment. 

Ok, I must wax sentimental here for a moment. At this time of year when we gather together from far away or even next door from one another, we usually exchange gifts. It is a custom and it is wonderful to share things with one another but honestly, to be together and to have our health is the greatest gift of all. I guess I'm being quite George Bailey about all of this but it is true: hold close to you not the present that is given but the person giving it . THERE is the real gift. 

I have a small immediate family. I am an only child so it is VERY small...but we are large in gratitude for the fact that we are all together. So often illness or a sudden flux in life jars us back to appreciating the very things that we sometimes take for granted: friends, family and our health. We are having a very small and humble Christmas, which is just fine by us. We have many years of great memories of large gaggles of kids and parents gathered around a turkey that seemed to strain the legs of the dining room table. Well, times change and given that I am vegan now there's Tofurkey instead of turkey and no leaves are added to our table as our family is rather far flung geographically. However, misting over with nostalgia can be counterproductive. I look to the present....to what is here and now, WHO is here and now...and appreciate every second with them. 

Take some time over the holidays to reflect on the year that is almost over. What have you accomplished or hoped to accomplish? What dreams have become reality? Which ones continue to elude you and how can you make them happen? This past year was a watershed one for me. I have traveled and experienced so much, made amazing friends which I will have for the rest of my life and grown as an artist through these experiences. I have realized how full the world is, in every sense of the word. I realize that anything is attainable with enough hard work and the belief in yourself to buoy you along.  Yet all we need is right beside us too, with friends and family that stand by us in the hard times. Truly, these are the best gifts of all.

I urge you to cherish your time with friends and loved ones this holiday season. Rejoice that you are together! If you are not together, for whatever reason, rest in the hope that you will see them soon and hold them tightly in your heart. If they are far away there is always Skype to bridge the gap. 

With Joy!

Heather

"What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life-to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories."~George Eliot

Musings from "The Rock": Exploring Newfoundland, Part 1

Dusk in Wesleyville, Newfoundland

"Do not go where the path  may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."~George Eliot

My second major journey of 2008 was to Newfoundland in September. My good friend Robert and I flew to Gander and spent the next two weeks exploring a large part of the northern portion of the province.

It was through the generosity of my Oakville, Ontario dealer Abbozzo Gallery and David Blackwood,  that I was able to travel to Newfoundland. David is Canada's most celebrated printmaker. His etchings and paintings positively glow with an almost ethereal light amidst a palette of warms and cools. You can click on David's name above to view his website. His work is exquisite in its depiction of the unique geography and his own personal connection with his home province of Newfoundland. I strongly encourage you to look at his work. You will not forget it.

My intent with traveling to Newfoundland was to shoot reference for an exhibition of paintings to take place in the fall of 2009 in Oakville at Abbozzo Gallery. We spent a total of two weeks in Newfoundland, covering huge distances and meeting many wonderful and unforgettable people along the way.

The road to Wesleyville

Every time someone who has visited Newfoundland speaks of it they almost become wistful, as though it holds a special place within their heart. I understand why that is now. The land seems to exist between two realities...it is so unique that Robert and I often felt as though we were in a different reality entirely. The province is huge, and we were under no illusions that we could breeze around the province within two weeks. Thus we stuck to the top half of the province and explored the northeastern section, over to Gros Morne National Park, up to Twillingate and Fogo Island in the north and then back to our home base of Wesleyville.

Sunset over Wesleyville 

The atmosphere is so acutely pure and unblemished in Newfoundland. Between the fresh air off of the taiga in Alaska and the clear skies of Newfoundland my lungs enjoyed a respite this year from the often smoggy air of Southwestern Ontario where I live. 

A view of Bennett's High Island off in the distance

Wesleyville is on the north eastern shores of Newfoundland and is a sweet little hamlet with about 1,500 residents in the summertime. David visits and works from time to time at the studio and a raft of other artists, writers and creative folk have darkened its doors over the years. I was quite honored to sign the little piece of illustration board that so many others had signed before me. Everyone from Farley Mowat to Rex Murphy had visited before us. We settled in quickly and set out first thing the next morning to explore Cape Freels, a beautiful area up the coast from Wesleyville.

 We really noticed the wind while in Newfoundland...throughout the day we were almost blown off of our feet periodically as we climbed hills and traversed Gros Morne and Fogo Island. When we visited Cape Freels the gales swept in off the water and made our walk a challenge. We saw little fishing boats out on the bay fishing for cod, the fishermen in yellow rain gear bouncing amid the sprays of water. They waved to us. It was the beginning of experiencing the terrific warmth of the people who call Newfoundland home. 

An abandoned lobster trap at Cape Freels

Kittiwakes searched for food ahead of us as we walked along the shores of the cape.

One of the many signs in Newfoundland that were bare...the atmosphere had long since obscured what had been written on it. This further  made me feel as though I was in another land altogether off the map.

"The Rock" in all of its splendor...gales, ocean, rolling crests of earth that seemed themselves to have been shaped by the very gusts coming in off of the water.

We came upon this little cemetery out at the end of the cape. The stones were propped up with pieces of wood to ballast them against the elements that continually push upon the land. We noticed that many of the people who had passed on died very young. Life would have been extremely difficult in times past and the mortality rate was very high. I remember seeing these stones and thinking that it was a beautiful final resting place for these people who had died so very long ago.

I loved the pattern of the blowing sand across the beach ahead of us. It was quite cold but we loved every moment of it.

The colour of the water struck me particularly on this day. It was almost purple, perhaps due to organic matter being churned up but I was not sure. Regardless, it had a beautiful weight to it, as though it was pushing against the sky with its inky hue.

I am drawn to photographing signs of places I pass through. I think that they reveal some of the nature of the place...a window into a bit of its personality perhaps. I liked the improvised "o" in this sign in Pound Cove. 

On our way back to Wesleyville from Cape Freels we stopped in Newtown, a cute little town with a gorgeous church defining its skyline. It was pretty quiet everywhere that we went in Newfoundland. People were out working and the activity of the summer months had died down substantially. Subsequently we really enjoyed the quiet, fresh air, smiles and waves of passersby and pristine views at every turn. 

Although I am a figurative artist and I usually paint people in my work, I did not want that to dictate what I would paint for this show. Thus I let myself be inspired by what I encountered, be it a beach, a berry picker by the road or the setting sun behind darkened hills that would end up on my canvases. 

A solitary little boat by the inlet on the way into Newtown. I loved the ochre colour of the fading grasses on the wane from the summer months.

You can see the beautiful church in Newtown behind this intriguing building built on this rock jutting out of the water. It seemed ready to collapse at any moment. 

A sweet little Newfoundlander puppy in Newtown. 

At the end of our first couple of days in Newfoundland Robert and I tried to absorb all of the unique character of this truly special part of Canada. I surge of patriotism for a place I was fortunate enough to call home welled up in me and I realized how lucky I was to be in a place of such simple beauty, such kindness offered whenever required, such endlessly changing skies and a quietness that helps stress melt away.  Paradoxically I was inspired and charged with an energy to get out and snap pictures of everything I saw. I took over 900 pictures in two weeks, and of those I will distill my reference down to about 15 paintings of very special places and people I met along the way. I will write more in the next "chapter" of my travels in Newfoundland soon. 

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."~Helen Keller

Here is some information on my solo exhibition in November 2009. If you have any questions please contact Abbozzo Gallery. You can see a selection of writings about these paintings on my other blog, here.

Newfoundland Portraits

November 5-22nd, 2009

Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville, Ontario

Opening Reception November 6th, 7-10pm

Have a wonderful day and take good care,

Heather

"Fairbanks Bus 142"

“It seems that almost anything manmade, that endures in time, acquires some qualities of the natural. Bleak shapes grow into a kind of magic, that once seen cannot easily be ignored.”~Ansel Adams

Here is the first painting that will form the body of work surrounding my time in exploring the Alaskan Interior this past summer. "Fairbanks Bus 142", oil on canvas, 36"x24", came together quickly, due in large part to my enthusiasm surrounding this very important project. When you love what you do, neither food nor rest are required. I did work on this piece while working on some other paintings but the bus kept beckoning me to it, to trying to render it as faithfully as I could.

While painting it I was taken back to that day, which was wonderful and bittersweet too. I remember Ed and I turning the corner and seeing Fairbanks Bus 142 at last, back lit by the drooping sun, crouching in the fireweed in the clearing. We were tired and elated, well, at least I was tired-Ed does this sort of thing very often and hiking the Stampede Trail was probably a piece of cake for him! For me, it was arduous at times but worth every wet step.

I tried to capture how intensely blue the sky can be in Alaska. With an absence of particulate pollution and smog, it brings vision into sharp focus and creates crisp outlines, even at the perimeter of ones field of vision. The atmosphere was so pure that it felt as though we were peering into a giant cerulean fishbowl above us.

The original painting has sold, but high quality reproductions of the piece are available here!

This painting will be the only Stampede Trail painting that I execute for a few months. I first have to finish my Newfoundland paintings, which are just as exciting in many ways. However, the Newfoundland show will arrive before I know it and thus the rest of the Alaska paintings must wait for the time being. They are there though, inside of me, just waiting to get out. It will test my patience, but hopefully "all good things come to those who wait" will be a tenet that comes true in this case. I aim to have upwards of 15-20 paintings for the show.

Chris McCandless was on my mind when I worked on this painting as much as he was when I was actually at the bus. Fortunately I took a lot of photo reference which helps to bring the emotions and memories back in a flood. I thought of the 113 days he spent at the bus, what he might have thought about, the windows he looked through, the reflections he saw within himself as much as through the panes of glass. This painting is the beginning of my own journey by examining where he experienced the last, fateful part of his own odyssey.

"There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms."~ George Eliot