When you see my paintings posted on my website, you don't see the process of how they got there, just the end result. Sometimes there are many layers, because that's how I like to paint. As I explore an idea I try things out and the painting emerges through layers of explorations. Sometimes things don't quite work & I scrape the paint back or even take out the electric sander & sand back the layers. This painting went through quite a few changes as it emerged on the panel, but I am pleased with where it ended up. I titled it 'Two minutes from Yonge Street' because it is inspired by a photograph taken near where I live in Oak Ridges and it's probably not even that far from Yonge. I am always amazed that there is such wild scenery in such an urban area. I love living here because, although we are in the suburbs, we have pockets of nature here and there. Not the manicured nature of city parks, but wild messy nature. I walk past this place nearly every day & I enjoy seeing it in each of the changing seasons & different weather conditions.

I was reflecting on how I love to paint the wild side of nature, not necessarily gentle pretty scenery. I love the vastness of the Ontario landscape, the wildness of it. The tangles of undergrowth and twisted limbs of trees. Rough solid rocks and lone pine trees silhouetted against wild skies threatening with rain. Soggy wetlands brimming with reedy grasses and waving cattails, tall tree trunks with watery reflections.

Two Minutes from Yonge Street
Acrylic on deep cradled panel 24" x 18"
$500 Available through Mill Pond Gallery (whoops...it's no longer available...the Mayor snapped it up at the opening reception!)