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Hello and Happy New Year to you all! It’s been awhile since my last letter - thank you to those who have been asking about the next one - it’s very heartening. And so here it is! Now that the holidays are over, I’m sure I’m not the only one pondering a meaningful direction for this year. The online space continues to confound me - it feels more noisy + crowded than ever with the addition of AI generated content. Brian Rutenberg in his Studio Visits often tells artists to ‘Close the studio door and sit in front of your work, back to the window’. I’ve taken this to heart - making studio time my first priority each morning - no disruption, no distraction. I’m feeling something unlock in this quiet space. It could be the start of a new chapter. A haze is clearing; maybe it’s because Spring is in the air (even though today the temps in Squamish are 0° C), the shortest day is past and there are new possibilities on the horizon. Maybe it’s because I’ve gessoed over most of the paintings I started last year and their potential is loaded again. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent more time in the fresh air walking, visiting friends. ….maybe it’s because I’m in love with an Ouzel! Water Ouzel (aka American Dipper) One of my favourite loop trails is along the Mamquam River and around the salmon spawning channels. There’s a lot of familiar bird activity there, but recently a new song caught my ear - a high pitched tinkling above the rushing river. Holding still for a while on the bank, I picked out a small grey river stone on the other side, bobbing up and down and disappearing into the river currents. Merlin (the app not the wizard) told me it was an American Dipper aka Water Ouzel. Since my first sighting I’ve been bewitched and besotted with it - connecting daily through first hand observation, drawing and photographing. It’s a pure delight to watch this tiny daredevil dive, swim and wade on the river bottom, feasting on juicy salmon eggs. It seems a perfect metaphor for gleefully accepting the challenges head on, adapting + developing whatever mad skills are needed to thrive under these turbulent conditions. You can be sure the Water Ouzel will feature in my bird paintings this year! Workshops Teaching starts up again next month and continues through Summer. At Capilano U - IDEA, I’ll be teaching two workshops - Lino printing for Illustrators and a workshop to help students plan their Capstone research for the Fall. I’m also very excited to be leading an in-depth workshop via Zoom in July for the San Diego Watercolour Society SDWS - Wild Birds in the spirit of Abstraction. It will be an opportunity to learn about my art process in detail and is open to everyone! There will be much more to come on this over the next weeks and months, so stay tuned. At the end of this week, I’ll be heading up the coast to spend my birthday with artist pal Toby Jaxon. This will be my last jaunt until after the IDEA Grad show at the beginning of April. Looking forward to more forest + coastal walks and inspiration gathering. I hope you’re all well and finding ways to keep a buoyant mood. See you again in March, Zoe XO PS If anyone is interested in embarking on a new creative practise through the rest of Winter and into Spring, I highly recommend the Take Two courses out of Australia. I’m still working through Tara Axford’s design + print making courses. I love them! PPS The winning ticket for LUNA was announced at the Foyer Gallery in December and the print is now with it's new owner. Thank you everyone for playing along!
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