You were an actress in successful TV shows and movies aired on CBS or Hallmark. You have performed in a theatre and had a chance to work with Sophia Loren. An impressive career, why you have switched to art then?

As a child, I dreamed of being an artist but became distracted by life as an actor. The collaboration of working together on stage appealed to me and I worked for 30 years on stage and film with notable personalities, in exotic locations like Stockholm, London, Copenhagen, Scottsdale Arizona, New York City, as well as Canada. I slowly aged out of the desire to work 8 shows a week and long hours on set and ended my acting career in a series of Goodwitch movies for Hallmark. The desire to have an art practice was just lying dormant throughout that time!

The transition has been seamless. Although I was working a lot as an actress I started to paint in 2001, in a class at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I set up a little studio in my home, and as I became more involved in the process of painting the struggle to focus on memorizing lines and working on character became a distraction to the painting process and so I stopped acting in 2012 as my gallery representation started to grow and my work started to sell regularly. As a stage or film actor, I have little control over how, when and where I work. In 2007 I became the Network Voice of a television station and realized that voice work was totally compatible with painting as there was no prep time involved, no lines to memorize!

I love to read and narration and commercial voice work is a great fit for me! The studio sessions are relatively short and I am paid well for my time. I narrate a lot of educational materials and learn in the process! And still have time to get to the studio.

Although I administer a Voice-over training school that I own, I can do that remotely and so I am able to go to the studio almost every day. I now have a dedicated studio space - 900 sq ft of light-filled space to let my imagination wander. If I am not painting I am glazing and wiring paintings, searching for imagery, talking to other artists, ordering materials etc.

From a glimpse at your studio on Saatchi, I have seen that you are not working only on one piece at a time. Isn’t it challenging to switch contexts from one painting to another?

I work on up to 6 canvases at a time, usually within the same theme and sometimes the same palette, or similar palette. Although my technique is loose and I like to work wet on wet I need to let some surfaces dry before working them. I have a lot of galleries asking for work so it makes sense to use my time this way! I have an energy when I paint and that energy needs to be channelled when it arises.

Chuck Close says “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just get to work!” I agree with this statement. The work fuels the inspiration, not the other way around, for me anyway. I will find myself in the flow of a painting and time will disappear and I will step back and see something wonderful. Sometimes! Most of the time I find the more I paint, the more I get out of my head and into my heart. I think that’s where inspiration lies. Once I dreamed of over-painting one of my canvases blue and woke up, went to the studio and did just that. It’s one of my favourites. Beachlife 18. That happens a lot to me. An idea will come to me in a dream.

I wish I knew! I dream of being an abstract painter like Joan Mitchel! Maybe I want the subject matter to acknowledge me as the painter.

The water paintings came as a result of witnessing my children playing in the water at our cottage, and then scuba diving in the Caribbean. I see water as a Divine element, life-giving and life-affirming. A universal memory, whether real or imagined, of living in the slipstream of life..a metaphor of sorts..

Thank you! I am working hard towards abstraction! it does not come organically and maybe not in this lifetime but the intention is to capture the essence.

I have not designed the book covers. I have supplied imagery for 4 book covers and the designer has modified the images to suit, sometimes removing elements or editing elements of the image. That is the power of the internet. I have not sought this out. They have found me.

Paint every day. Do not judge your work. Paint a collection, or repeat a theme, and see how far it takes you. I would say I like 10% of my work. The rest is practice. It’s always surprising to me that others like those too!

I usually abandon a painting when I am bored with it or have nothing else to contribute. I have signed unfinished paintings. I can take several years or several hours to complete a painting. That’s why I paint several at the same time. So they don’t become precious to me. I overpaint a lot of my work that sits idle and my technique is fast and loose. I don’t pretend to be a master!

Just do it. Paint. Read. Look. Listen. Do not judge your work. That’s for someone else to do. Give yourself permission to make mistakes and go outside your comfort level. It’s not life and death! Build a community of artists for conversation and support. Show your work! We work alone but we don’t need to feel lonely if we reach out.

Hmmm… good question!

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