I have been drawing as long as I can remember. As a child I would draw on anything handy, my schoolbooks,margins of my scribblers,even in my Mothers cookbook. The Eaton's catalogue was my textbook on anatomy.
When the time was right I taught myself to paint by reading books, by looking at artwork and studying the masters. I attended artists workshoops. I experimented a lot. My favorite medium and first love is oil paint, then water colors and acrylics and I quite often do fiinished works in pen and ink or pencil.
I like to try different media and I also work in stained glass, and clay.
I love the challenge and the joy of taking a scene that I love and translating it into paint. I love the stimulation that comes from beginning and then completing a work. My subject matter comes from my surroundinggs, wild and tame flowers, farmers' fields in all their seasons, the tremendous luminous skys of the northern prairies, and probably most often a wildly beautiful creek that flows past our country home. I like to paint scenes that we think of as commonplace, such as roadsides, a patch of swamp grass, or the fallen and falling trees about to rejoin the earth. By painting them, I am in a small way able to pay homage to the life around us that we so seldom get a chance to pause and admire.
What I hope for most for the viewers of my work, is that it might move them to also feel wonder at the natural landscapes in their lives. I paint as I see, in a natural or realistic manner, working to portray the land and give it its due of love and respect.
I am married to Gerard Dunn, originally from Cape Breton and we live on an acreage in the M.D. of Bonnyville,near Cold Lake. We have 6 grown children and nine grandchildren. |
