So what makes me think I'm an artist?

I took art classes after school from about age 12 up to age 16 when I "finished" high school. After high school, I studied for two years at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr Institute of Art), and worked as a graphic artist and typesetter to support myself while sporadically continuing my fine art education at Mount Royal College, the University of Calgary and the University of Victoria. Oddly, even with all that fine art training, I didn't spend much time making art that wasn't work related.

In 1999, I got serious again about making art, and began teaching myself the kinds of things that were out of fashion in the academic world, which, at the time I studied, was more focused on trendy conceptualism as opposed to formal training in materials, technique and skill. This doesn't mean I've jumped on the Art Renewal bandwagon to worship Bouguereau and the rest of the Pre-Raphaelites. There's no escaping the influence of the past century on the art I like to look at and make, I just don't feel a strong connection to the stuff that thrills the kind of people who read ArtForum.

My current interests include:

• Drawing. Anyone can learn to draw, by the way. It does not require any special talent, just the ability to observe things as they really are. Once you learn to do that, drawing them is simple.


• Painting. I've never really messed with this much before now. As an art student I concentrated on drawing and sculpture, so the medium has so far been quite a challenge. I'm mainly doing acrylic and watercolor, with occasional digressions into other media.


• Pastels. Pastel paintings by real pastel artists are typically lush, colorful and thoroughly lovely. Mine so far don't look like anything but mud. I am not ready to give this up quite yet, but I am learning that this is a difficult medium to master.


• Mixed media. When all else fails, glue stuff to it.

My studio

I took over the northwest corner of our patio sunroom for my art studio. It has gorgeous north light and great views of the garden. In mild weather it's just about the best place I could dream of. When it's excessively hot or excessively cold, I paint at my desk in the spare bedroom.

• The easel is a Trident Maximilian "Swiss" easel, meant to be portable by some loose definitions, but not something I would ordinarily take into the field as although it folds down into a suitcase-sized box, it's rather heavy, especially when full of materials. Still, it makes a nice compact studio easel and is well suited to the size and format in which I like to paint.


• The cabinet is Shawn's Watercolor Station from Richeson, which is capable of hiding a surprising quantity of supplies, paper, panels and canvas. It's a fine piece of furniture in its own right, built like a tank from solid oak and oak plywood, and easily transportable from room to room if necessary.


• Scattered about my corner is a typical selection of brushes, paints, pencils, drawing boards, a magnifying lamp (covered by a tea cozy so the lens doesn't set anything on fire when the sun hits it), and other odds and ends. It's easy to keep the space tidy (though I frequently don't), and I can haul everything out at a moment's notice and paint to my heart's content.

Sketching in the field

I bring a small to medium sized field kit with me whenever I'm out, which gives me many opportunities to sketch and paint. The trick is to avoid carrying too much stuff -- if it's too heavy to lug around, it'll be left behind next time. My "minimum" setup easily fits in a purse, and consists of the following items:

• Paints. Two mint tins with half pans of watercolors. The large one is a "classical" palette consisting of earth colors and other traditional hues typical of the 18th and 19th centuries. I get a nice range of colors and mixes for sketching plants and outdoor scenery. The small tin holds a collection of primary and secondary colors, evenly spaced around the color wheel. With these, I can mix virtually any intermediate color. The pans are held in the tins with blue putty poster adhesive, and I put a silica gel ("do not eat") packet in each tin to keep the paints from staying soggy in damp weather. Both palette suggestions are courtesy of Handprint.com's excellent watercolor site.


• Colored Pencils. Another small mint tin (Starbuck's vanilla mints) filled with a tiny set of colored pencils I found at the local Barnes and Noble store. The pencils came packaged in a CD jewel case, which was too large and fragile to carry in a purse. The set of 24 pencils fits perfectly into the mint tin.


• Drawing tools. A plastic Cretacolor lead holder, holding a very thick soft graphite lead. This lead holder is also the perfect size to grip the tiny colored pencils. A "click eraser", easier to manage than a regular plastic eraser. A fine point black drafting pen.


• Brushes. A set of size 8 folding watercolor brushes: flat, filbert and round, with synthetic bristles, from Pro Arte, plus a "mini" size Water Brush. The translucent blue shaft holds water and is easily refilled. It flows just enough to moisten the brush tip, and is very convenient and mess-free for quick watercolor sketches.


• Sketch book. I adore pretty little blank books made with exotic papers. They're smaller and lighter than the typical hard bound sketch pad, and they look great. This one is covered with recycled sari material. Like the colored pencils, it came from my local Barnes and Noble store.

For more ambitious expeditions, I pack the "minimal" set in a medium sized bum bag, and add a Schmincke 12 half-pan watercolor box (that actually holds as many as 20 half pans), a small squeeze bottle of water, some more Water Brushes (flat and round), a selection of pens and pencils, a glue pen, a travel-sized can of hair spray to fix pastel drawings, and a tin box that once contained an AOL startup CD but is now filled with most of a set of 48 Conte hard pastels. I also carry more paper, including a postcard-size watercolor block, a larger sketchbook, and a selection of exotic and ordinary papers trimmed to fit on a 6 x 9 inch clipboard. I also include a digital camera, a miniature Leatherman style tool, some paper towels for cleanup, and a few other odds and ends including a wide brim hat and sunscreen.

For a really serious session, I take a lightweight metal tripod easel, a folding camp chair, larger watercolor blocks and sketch pads, and a bigger selection of painting and drawing materials.

Recent paintings

The Telephone Psychic. 16 x 20", acrylic and collage on panel.

9 of Cups. 16 x 20", acrylic and mixed media on panel.
7 of Earth (The Garden). 16 x 20", acrylic and mixed media on panel.