The two images are painted in acrylics for my  solo show, A Touch of Green, held at the  Yukon College Bistro during September 2014.

The solo show was mainly a study of green     and the use of modelling paste. There was no predetermined idea of the outcome but a faith in the creative process taken from the ‘brain’ library of  impressions, mental visual images collected over the years, an “Art of Seeing” on an everyday bases. I am in awe of the brain’s capacity as a phenomenal tool in collecting and sorting out this creative data on a painting by following the neuronic pathways.

The call of wonderment and innocence of the creative process is loud and clear, a freedom of letting go and allowing the domino-like steps to give away to the adventure.

This is different from past paintings that had a beginning point, a drawing of a specific image or impression of observed lighting effects, shapes and shadows of buildings. They were technically correct but the magical aha was not there. The watercolour layered technique of washes began to evoke a sense of place and atmosphere, the ‘aha’ started to show itself.

In 1980, in Dawson City, the word ‘essence’ stood out strong and proud, wanting me to take notice.  One question lead into another as I asked myself the age-old philosophical question, what is essence, what makes up the elements of essence in what I see, what senses are engaged and how to portray that essence aside from a physical sense of form, how to allow the parts to become greater than the whole? It was like a biting into an apple to find essence of the apple.

My journey started then, this illusive muse, intangible and metaphysical spirit called Essence. Glimmers of blue colour dots kept showing up when I closed my eyes. The recognizable elements of Yukon winter light, mountains, winter ice fog etc. showed themselves as blue travel markers. After many years, the soul of ‘Essence’ began to shape and refine itself in my watercolour images reflected a form of ‘magic’ .

Through the years, aside from being a mother of three wondrous boys, part of the journey took me to find truths for myself like canoeing down Yukon River, new age healing groups, sweat lodges, time on the east coast, hiking in Baffin Island, vision quests in Montana, cooking up at Old Crow in the winter camp for healing of youth, travelling 50 miles by skidoo into the Werneke mountains to spend a winter in a cabin, and a three hundred mile skidoo trip over two mountain passes to the Bonnetplume River and back. Essence was always close by sitting on my shoulder observing and with senses engaged.

I was urged to play in a different direction, be a kid again in wonderment and innocence, what visually resonated with me to complement this sense of essence, what visual elements rang true to me? Is it line, negative spaces, contrast, texture? Time to  give the creative muse a new coat.

These unseen travel markers, like stepping stones, rise out of the water with each step taken. A mystical magic in the mist and faith in that process as the creative muse and spirit of Essence now takes me by the hand and lead me to places unknown, equal as partners and less control on my part.