A Wing, A Beer Bottle and More-Oil Painting

Spirit Talk
9 x 12
Oil on Linen/Panel

An old stubby my husband found in the bush, a wing from a Red Winged Black Bird that died in our yard, an egg from one of my sister's little hens and a branch from a pine tree were all in my studio with all the other things I collect for paintings. I have a drawer full of moths, bees, dragon flies, and feathers. There are shelves full of old bottles that we've found in the bush, unwashed and left just the way we found them, old tobacco cans, 4 year old crumbling rhubarb leaves, china, berries, eggs, old cutlery, and more. The skulls of a goat, cat, cow, deer, rocks, stones, and numerous antlers. They're all things that have meaning in one way or another or can be representative of feelings, thoughts or ideas. I collect things knowing that eventually they will all have a story to tell on the canvas.

This particular grouping of items was in response to a call for entries from the Federation of Canadian Artists for an upcoming exhibition 'Capturing the Canadian Spirit' in celebration of the 2010 winter olympics in Vancouver. The space in this painting represents the spaciousness that is the Canadian landscape, the branch stands in for our incredible natural resources, the egg is for the newness and our growth as a nation, the wing stands for our history of exploration of this huge land, and the stubby represents the humour we Canadians can see in ourselves, and well, we do like beer.