Expressive Paintings, Rich with Colour for Your Beautiful Home.

About me

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved working with my hands.   

Whether that means being shrouded in dust, paint splatters in my hair while renovating or having dirt under my fingernails from a day digging in the garden I love to express my creative spirit in tactile ways.  And don’t get me started on food…I could talk about cooking for hours!

So after a career in health care I fulfilled a lifelong dream of going to art school.  I returned to university and completed a BFA (Honours Visual Arts) with great distinction at the University of Windsor, Canada in 2012.  

I’ve been making art and discovering more about myself ever since.

It’s the pleasure of the challenge in the creative act that excites and propels my art practice. 

How I work

The art making process takes me on a meandering journey, beginning with the first gestural passes of tangled marks and paint.  This is the exciting part.  It's in this beginning stage that I lay down visual information that will become the underpinning of the work. 

Working on several paintings at once, I begin with loose swaths of acrylic colour, intuitively drawn marks, and sometimes collaged paper.  This process is repeated multiple times with each successive layer of media both informed by and partially obscuring what has come before.  

It’s important for me to work this way in order to create a richly textured and nuanced image that reflects the history of the process.

Then, inevitably, as more layers of media are added, comes the messy middle.  Here is where I struggle with the process:  I vacillate between hating what I see in the certain knowledge that I don’t know what I am doing and delighting in lovely surprises that guide me forward.  

As the marks and materials accumulate, which elements are important or good or necessary in the image shift, sometimes in unexpected ways.  The process becomes contemplative and often challenging as I decide what and how I want to communicate through my work.

It's in the final stage of making a mixed media painting that I slow down and make considered decisions about what to add and what to subtract on the canvas in front of me. There comes a point in the process where the painting hints to me what it wants to be and my task is to follow those clues to bring it to a satisfying conclusion.

When needed, I must sacrifice beautiful passages that I once loved in service of the greater good of the painting.  This can be a difficult part of my process and yet is often just what is needed to making the painting complete.

What I have been in search of all the while, is a painting of confidence and clarity, while at the same time, rich with visual interest.  

It’s when I know this to be true, that I know the work is complete.

Owning original art, a work that resonates with you, can help you express your own story.

Become a collector

The art that we are drawn to is naturally a reflection of our individual preferences, it can’t help but be. Adding original art to your personal collection is a great way to curate your space to reflect your singular style and taste.  

I’m honoured if the work that I create speaks to you. You can shop for a painting to purchase in the available paintings section. If you have questions at all about any of the work you see on my website or how to make a purchase, feel free to contact me here.

My work is also available for purchase through Nancy Johns Gallery.