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Available Original Art for Purchase
Arranged in alphabetical order (Note: NW = current work from the last several years; EW = early work)
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ARPEGGIOS WITH FLOWERS (EW/NW)
36 x 60, acrylic and collaged wallpaper & table napkins on weathered wooden framed canvas $3775 This reworked piece is a dialogue between cultures, the shape of our homes, and the stuff it takes to forgive, to learn, and to remain in the conversation. It reflects my longing for households of love that are wise, enduring and brave. |
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At the Take Out (EW)
24x48, acrylic and collaged paper on wood framed canvas $2400 Three beached canoes at the end of an Algonquin excursion with our daughters and some friends. There's something so raw, so humbling and good about paddling through heavy rain, cold and wind. Perspective is offered. Well-being is a gift you do not take for granted. |
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#beloved (EW)
120x144, acrylic on 3 birch panels; includes separate frame $10,000 This 3-panelled large work is intended for a large, public space and invites the viewer to settle in its centre, held and loved. Read more about this installation on the Collaborations page. |
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Descant (NW)
36x52, triptych - acrylic on 3 canvases (Note: middle canvas is gallery wrap, the two flanking canvases are regular wrap, allowing the central canvas to stand) $3275 "The prefix, des-, meaning 'two' or 'apart' indicates that the descant is a second song apart from the main melody. A counterpart. The art of composing or improvising contrapuntal part music." The title suitably describes the disruption/invitation of these last few years. I've found myself improvising around the melodies I've once believed were complete. Launching into a descant is pure joy to hear, like a thrilling crescendo to a familiar tune, but horrible if not done right. It still much work with the melody. |
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Deluge (NW)
60x24, acrylic on birch panel $2100 These two self-portraits (see image below) explore the range of our human condition: times we are overwhelmed and feel certain we will drown, and the parched wilderness where we lose our bearings. When words fail to capture the fleeting glimpses of insight – the insight that gives meaning to our days, painting does this for me. Sometimes it is a seizing, but mostly it is gentle, this holding of story and truth. Like the bird that alights impossibly upon my head, despite the torrential downpour, or flies just beyond the periphery of my vision so that I wonder, did I really see something? These birds are my metaphor for witness. I will remember. I will mine for the gold of grace and truth in these moments, and there, build my alter. |
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Drought (NW)
60x24, acrylic on birch panel $2100 These two self-portraits (see above image) explore the range of our human condition: times we are overwhelmed and feel certain we will drown, and the parched wilderness where we lose our bearings. When words fail to capture the fleeting glimpses of insight – the insight that gives meaning to our days, painting does this for me. Sometimes it is a seizing, but mostly it is gentle, this holding of story and truth. Like the bird that alights impossibly upon my head, despite the torrential downpour, or flies just beyond the periphery of my vision so that I wonder, did I really see something? These birds are my metaphor for witness. I will remember. I will mine for the gold of grace and truth in these moments, and there, build my alter. |
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Fern House On Rocks (NW) 12x10, acrylic and papers on birch panel $300 Another study of the house/rocks image. I enjoyed the exuberance of the house, all fern-ish and organic, yet defined by its traditional geometric shape used to communicate 'home". Is it a tiny home, or are the rocks huge boulders. And just how temporary is this structure? Even so, it is happily stationed and seems to be mighty pleased where it landed. |
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Goodness, Gentleness and Patience Rest on Main
(EW) 24x36, acrylic on wood framed canvas $1775 (Currently at the Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery) What if the great virtues were embodied in regular, everyday folks? I imagine them to look something like these lovely elders. (Can you tell this was painted pre-pandemic?) And I imagine them walking through this life in a way that brings goodness, even when news, politics, health and economy throw us into turmoil. We then look to these ones who exude the virtues. They make us better and I thank them. |
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Gratitude (EW)
30x24, acrylic and mixed media on regular canvas $500 Painted during my early years as a tired, confused and overwhelmed mom, this piece is one part exuberant love, one part sacrifice, a soft belly and a good dose of throw-my-hands-up-because-I-don't-know-what-the-hell-I'm-doing! I survived those years. We tend to look back and wonder about how it was possible. Raising daughters made me more compassionate, tolerant, creative, magnanimous.... Every part of motherhood, the good, the bad, the ugly, is worth it. Worth it! |
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Hard stHoly Dark (NW)
30x24, acrylic on canvas $1500 Post pandemic. Post retirement. from a long teaching career. Studio start-up. Countless hours of painting in solitude. In the thick of interrogating my culture, my faith, my Dutch heritage, colonialism, white privilege... you know, just stuff. Rather hard stuff. Yes, there is deep lament. And yes, there is personal loss and grief and choices I've made. But the expanse and freedom is awe-inspiring, frightening, quieting, gorgeous. |
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I Hear With an Accent (NW)
48x36, mixed media on birch panel $3500 The four paper squares collaged on the left-hand feature my dad's handwriting. Written in Frisian, his native tongue, the words blur from the paper, through the ancient tree and into calligraphic marks off the picture plane - a tribute to my family heritage and an examination of how it has influenced my worldviews. COVID has offered me room and a growing desire to understand the things I have inherited: genetics, beliefs, narratives. What do I embrace because it is good, what do I let go of, what needs further exploration? |
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Incarnation (EW)
36x48, acrylic and gold leaf on wood framed birch panel $3500 Embodiment. To appear in living flesh, fully present. As my imperfect Christian faith evolves, falters and surges, I find myself returning to the incarnation of Jesus. God in human form - this tradition's foundational canon. The calliope hummingbird alights, a momentary jewel, suggesting poetic mystery beyond my grasp. |
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In Good Company (EW)
18x24, acrylic on black framed canvas $865 In recent years my family journeyed through the unchartered waters of cancer and death. We don’t journey alone, however, but find ourselves in the company of those who keep us afloat through their expressions of love and kindness. A small, vulnerable vessel buoyed up by the greater story of community. |
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In The Field Of Uncertainty (NW)
50x24, diptych, acrylic on canvas $2400 Certainty is a myth. Yet, how seductive it can be! It suggests insight and wisdom, assurity of beliefs and how one shows up in the world. Uncertainty on the other hand can be deeply uncomfortable, awkward and anxiety-producing, especially when alongside those who profess to know what they are about. At the time the pandemic hit my part of the world, I had just retired from a long and busy teaching career. I stepped into a new studio, and a sudden isolated existence. A lot of what I knew - or thought I knew - started to unravel. Big questions about faith, interrogation of the status quo, partisanship, and colonialism propelled me to do a lot of deep diving in murky waters. I call it my “great unraveling”. A Blackfoot elder shared with me about the presence of shadows. Pay attention, he said, to the gift of your shadow that comes from Natoosi, brother sun, for it has things to teach you. You are never alone; your shadow will accompany you. One’s shadow shifts as the sun journeys across the sky, and distorts into almost unrecognizable forms. All things have a shadow, you, me, our more-than-human relatives all cast their own unique shadows. They merge and undulate with the contours of the ground. So, here I am: big-footed, tiny-headed, see-through and elongated as my shadow adjusts to the land it moves across. Paying attention. Being curious. Embracing my uncertainty. |
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Inner Compass (NW)
14x18, acrylic on black framed canvas $630 Leaned into the pummeling elements with head down, we can imagine this seasoned old mare will go where she knows she must go. Her inner compass is strong; she can trust it will bring her home. |
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Journey With Flowers No. 1 & No. 2 ~ March & April 2020 (NW)
12x12 acrylic and collaged paper on gallery-wrap canvas $300 each As we move through our days, let us bring flowers, let us bring beauty. |
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Journey With Flowers No. 16 ~ June 2021 (NW)
8x8, acrylic, collaged table napkin and wallpaper on birch panel $160 Available at the www.crowsnestpasspublicartgallery.com/ |
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Journey With Flowers No. 20 - October 2021 (NW)
10 x 20, acrylic with collaged wallpaper on gallery wrap canvas $500 currently at the www.thelebel.ca Another month of Covid19, another boat with flowers. |
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Journey With Flowers No. 21 - November, 2021 (NW)
16x16, acrylic and table napkin on gallery wrap canvas $500 Currently at the http://www.thelebel.ca |
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Journey With Flowers No. 22 - December, 2021 (NW)
24x12, acrylic, wallpaper & Japanese papers on birch panel $720 |
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Journey With Flowers No. 23 - January, 2022 (NW)
18x14, acrylic, wall paper & handmade paper on birch panel SOLD! |
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Journey With Flowers No. 24 (February) (NW)
9x12, acrylic, vintage wallpaper, collaged papers on framed canvas $350 currently at the www.fernieartsco-op.com/ A small boat journeying with flowers: one for every month of the pandemic. |
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Lifeline (EW)
acrylic on 17' Grumman canoe $9000 An installation piece that will create conversation, this painting highlights the delicate yet tenacious nature of enduring relationships and community. Read more about it on the Collaboration page. |
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Practice Resurrection (NW)
48x24, acrylic on gallery-wrap canvas $2400 An image inspired by Wendell Berry's poem, Manifesto: the Mad Farmer Liberation Front. (a few selected lines below) ....ask the questions that have no answers invest in the millennium plant sequoias say that your main crop is the forest you did not plant that you will not live to harvest... put your faith in the 2" of humus that will build under trees every thousand years... practice resurrection. The boat, a journey, bears a thriving seedling which clutches to a golden cord holding it heavenward. We bear children. We grow gardens. We bake bread, paint images and choreograph movement into dance. We rise, and then rise again from sorrow, from ashes and sickness, from loss and pain, even from the rhythms of sleep, is to practice the wonder of resurrection. We could succumb. We could refuse to get up. But somehow, we do. Let us remain in wonder at this truth. |
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Rays (NW)
16x16, acrylic,, collaged table napkins on canvas $640 Currently at www.fernieartsco-op.com I often drive past a little forgotten grove of black willows that once softened the boxy brick exterior of the old hospital in our community. The hospital has long since been torn down with only the telltale foundational rubble to tell the story. These trees give me great delight as I drive by en route to my studio. The ever-insistant westerlies have nudged their trunks to curve around one another. They are beautiful. I paint them with pleasure. |
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Spring Prayer (EW)
24x12, acrylic on gallery-wrap canvas $720 Currently at www.fernieartsco-op.com There were 5 snowstorms that April. I love winter, but I began wearing a flowered scarf just to remind myself that spring would come, that crocuses were forming under all that snow. On a whim, I tied this scarf between the trees and stood back to enjoy the new view. I stared at it for a long time, a feast of promise and colour in what seemed a perpetually grey world. It offered a metaphor. During darker times, these moments open my thoughts to consider what is beyond my immediate view. |
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Sound Within A Sound (EW)
30x24, acrylic on wood framed canvas $500 Is there anything more visceral and compelling than a drum beat? It calls us, pulls us in, moves our body and our spirit! This particular image was from a photo I took at a gathering of artists, musicians and creatives. We pooled our diverse expressions of worship there in the setting of a beautiful chapel deep in the Rocky Mountains. A sacred experience that I wanted to hold in my memory. |
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Still Standing (NW) 10x8, acrylic and paper on birch panel $250 I find rocks irresistible, and I love building configurations with them. These rocks were collected from the Kootenay River during a paddling trip. They have been piled high over and over again as I drink tea or think or visit. The juxtaposition of rock tower and fern-house was a simple meditation of what lasts longer, what dissolves, what remains. I was thinking about households and love. Astoundingly fragile; remarkably stable. They are both. |
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There, a Tree Grew (NW)
14x11, acrylic and collaged papers on birch panel $385 Currently at www.fernieartsco-op.com There are black willow all over the community where I live. They are fast growing and have this way of twisting at the trunk according to the prevailing winds. The willow holds both the remarkable ability to adjust to its circumstances and to grow in all kinds of soil. I find them heartening. |
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The Teacher (EW)
24x30, acrylic, papers on black framed canvas $1500 My hands. The square palms of my father and the deft movements of my mother. I was an art teacher for over 30 years. They have rarely been smooth or paint-free. Like water pouring through my fingers, hand-written notes from students, parents, student-teachers and colleagues, cascade into a bowl-like form, but fail to hold them at all. They are the good, the bad, the funny, and the ones that made me cry - a summary of my life as a teacher. A tribute to this beautiful, messy, and most wonderful profession that has so profoundly shaped who I am. |
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This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land (EW)
60x48, acrylic on wood framed canvas $4320 Wolves that travel alone have a story to tell. It is not their normal social behaviour. This particular wolf is on a journey, strong west winds at his back as though nudging his steps forward. The mountain range is the Continental Divide separating British Columbia from Alberta, delineating water’s flow east from west. This wolf traverses this great geological phenomenon with ease. Oblivious to political boundaries, these long distance movements along the spine of our beautiful continent establish and maintain new groupings, enriching the gene pool. |
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Three Arrows (EW)
40x30, acrylic on gallery-wrap canvas $1500 At different points along the parenting journey, you reach crossroads where you must re-define and re-prioritize aspects of family life. You clean house, so to speak, so that things function as they should for the new season in which you find yourselves. These times ask you to step away from activity so you can hear your quieter thoughts and, more importantly, hear your children’s hearts. This piece was painted during one of those times. It took the deliberate, thoughtful process of naming an image in paint to gain insight, to slow down, to listen, and take stock … and in so doing, to remember that the most important opportunities are right here in the most ordinary and familiar of places - at home. |
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Treehugger: White Oak With Nel (NW)
48x36, acrylic on gallery-wrap canvas, wooden frame $3500 There is a something about the sentient quality of trees that humanity is waking up to. Ancient red cedar, sturdy limber pine, majestic white oak... trees have always caught the collective imagination, and now more than ever. Nel is a member of our community who champions every living creature, furred, feathered, or scaled. Flanked by manicured yards, Nel's small plot is alive with life as she carefully attends to habitat and nurtures biodiversity. She is a student of Nature and is as curious a person as I have ever had the privilege to know. It seemed fitting to have her be my model to accompany this white oak portrait. |
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Treehugger: Black Cottonwood With Lee-Anne (NW)
64x64, acrylic on 5 separate wood-framed canvases (note: this image has been digitally "stitched" together for easier viewing) $7150 Just west of Fernie, British Columbia, are some of the oldest known cottonwoods in the world. They are protected by the Nature Conservatory of Canada. Lee-Anne is one of those individuals whose heart for wilderness has led her to advocate with both intelligence and passion for sustainable use of our wild spaces. She also happens to be one of my dearest friends in the world. |
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Tumbling Bear (EW)
60x48, acrylic, typographical maps on wood framed canvas $4320 Topo maps shatter as a blue grizzly tumbles through space. What does it look like when our wilderness landscapes are fractured beyond recognition? At what point is it irreparable? We are well aware of the threats, and no one can deny our need for natural resources. These mounting pressures require that we step up intentional strategies so that our beloved planet does not suffocate in our embrace. Knowing movement patterns of various species across landscapes, identifying crucial wild spaces that connect animal and plant populations, and the protection of natural areas, are progressing up the Priority Ladder - at least we hope so. There is hope that the tumbling grizzlies of this world will land on their feet. |