The Times They Are A Changin'

This Too Shall Pass
36"x 12"
Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas

I received an email yesterday from Connie who asked me if I was still working in textiles as she hadn't seen me post any work in a long time.  That got me to thinking that perhaps I'd forgotten/neglected to touch on this subject or that maybe I already did but am too lazy to go back and check ... maybe the latter.

Anyway, to make a long story short... for the forseeable future the sewing machine has been retired and I'll tell you why.

Blind Faith

24"x24"

Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas

A little over a year ago I began feeling the need to work on a much larger scale but couldn't wrap my head around how I could possibly manage that in machine embroidery.  I started to get the itch to experiment and to try something new.  One week while my machine was in being serviced I was cleaning out another one of the dreaded closets in our house that seems to house all the junk we've collected over the years, and low and behold I came across a couple of canvases.  I started simply playing and wow could I ever feel the hook.  Moving the paint around the canvas just felt so freeing after the years spent being committed to each stitch my machine put down.  I produced two small pieces that I somewhat liked and could see a small glimmer of hope to where this might lead.  I continued to stay within a realm I was comfortable with which was 8"x8" or 10"x10"... I was pretty scared of going too big too fast, thinking that maybe I would get discouraged and give up.  

 Here I Breathe

40"x20"

Acrylic on Gallery Wrap Canvas

A few months later I had a couple friends over who wanted me to give them a tour of my studio.  Seeing that it is a tiny space it was a pretty short tour but they saw the few paintings I had finished and asked if they were for sale ..... it kind of took off from there.

I approached both of my representing galleries at the time, The Village Gallery and The Silverbridge and they were very receptive to taking my paintings.  In September I will head up the Blue Mountain way to The Matilda Swanson Gallery who have asked that I bring larger paintings since that is what most of their clients purchase.  Last week I was speaking with The Tangerine-Gecko Gallery in Markham and they are interested in taking a few paintings as well.  So it looks like I will have a fairly busy fall.

The Summer I First Believed

24"x24"

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

I've never really entertained any ideas of being a painter as I was pretty happy in my little niche but it just goes to show you just never know where life will take you.  Through unforseen circumstances, a desire to produce larger pieces and a whole hell of a lot of hard work .... this is where I find myself.

I will always love texile work and am so very proud of the quality of the work I've accomplished over the years but for now I am happy here in my tiny little studio, paintbrush in hand......

Strength of Character

11"x14"

Acrylic on Canvas