Alone

Seeing things through the lens of climate change and civil unrest around the globe, I have been using my surroundings at Long Branch Studios to find inspiration for my current unsettled work. I have been thinking of the ending of the world as I knew it, and know it, losing hope for a timely response from humanity to the crisis of global warming. 

When Richard died suddenly in November of 2019, followed by the challenges and restrictions of the pandemic, the world and my world had changed. 

Isolation created introspection. Alone.

Hiker on the Marsh and Lost on the Marsh were featured in the exhibition Alone at Acadia University Art Gallery.

https://www.artsteps.com/view/60103f3f92f9ac58a1a2d497

https://exhibitsatacadia.omeka.net/exhibits/show/alone-at-acadia/item/58

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLegUyTnl64/

Hiker on the Marsh, 2019, acrylic on birch panel, 3' x 4'.

Lost on the Marsh, 2020, acrylic on birch panel, 3' x 5'

 

Going back in time...

In January of 2018 I came to Annapolis Royal to meet with artists Sharon Irving Kennedy, Brad Hall and ecologist Gregory Heming to discuss artwork in response to the environment and climate change. Before I left Halifax while daydreaming on the internet I came across Nancy McCabe;s property in Port Royal. I saw it, brought Richard to see it and we fell in love with it. By April 19th we had sold our city home and moved to rural Nova Scotia.

Long Branch Studios is situated on the Granville Road at the base of North Mountain, with the Queen Anne Marsh and the Annapolis River basin right across the road. I was surrounded by multiple ecosystems: marsh, tidal, forest, field, farmland, orchards, brooks and water courses were all part of my daily walks. 

The barnyard with view of the vegetable garden, studio (white barn) and chicken coop on the hill.

The brook flowing across the property at the entrance to the woodlands.

A view of North Mountain from the Queen Anne Marsh in the late fall.

The Annapolis River Basin looking east toward Annapolis Royal.

Kennedy Brook empties into the Annapolis River Basin.

I continued to be fascinated and inspired by microcosms of the earth, tidewrack and forest floor.

Broom moss?

Hosta leaves in the fall.

Frost on the field grasses.

Rain drops on Russian Kale.

Ice formation on a marshland puddle.

Ice on the brook.