Painted Places

For years, much of my work has originated outdoors while holding my camera looking for inspiration and reference materials.  Then it started to change…I started to bring my watercolour paints. Then it evolved again to include my water mixable oils.

Then it happened. I’d find myself standing along a shoreline with the wind pushing at my gear, watching weather move across the water, or trying to hold onto a few fleeting minutes of changing light before everything shifts again. I was completely hooked. Plein Air painting has rewired my DNA!

Some places I return to over and over. Others are tied to a single afternoon and a particular feeling I didn’t want to lose. Covid, strangely enough…cemented it all together with “staycations” and restricted mobility and a very special “Bubble Buddy”.

My new map gathers those locations together

Each marker opens into paintings created while on site — beaches, rocky shorelines, gardens, rivers and lakes, and familiar corners of the region that continue to pull me back. Some places have several paintings layered into one location, revealing how differently the same view can feel depending on season, tides, weather or time of day. Rockwood Park in Saint John is a good example of this.

I want the map to feel less like a directory and more like a visual journal — inviting you to wander through the places behind the paintings.

Plein air work has always been deeply connected to memory and experience for me. I rarely remember only the scene itself. I remember the sounds, the gulls circling overhead, conversations with people stopping to watch, cold fingers, incoming rain, sudden warm sunlight, the smell of salt air, or the challenge of trying to finish before the light disappeared entirely. Especially freezing – I especially remember all those times!

This map lets those locations become part of the story