THE
NEW HORIZONS
COLLECTION
Ever-changing, like the coast…
This collection is about arriving in a new place, feeling more than a little tossed about by life’s twists and turns. It’s about falling asleep to the distant sounds of the ocean, and waking to a gentle quiet.
Moving is a messy business. Treasured, useful, and no longer wanted objects – as well as experiences, memories, and losses… are all jumbled together in piles and boxes. It takes time to find things, to brave the most tangled areas. But, gradually, you sift through, finding new homes for things and letting go of what no longer aligns.
There is an overgrown patch of land to clean up. Gardens to dream of. An old house to turn into a home – one that fits how you spend your time, where you like to sit, how you like to create...
It becomes a daily habit to walk down the road, through the village, along the beach, and out past the breakwater. Slowly getting to know this new place with its salty coastal air, expansive skies, and long stretches of horizon. Relishing in the quiet. Hearing just the snuff of seals, the chatter of birds, the rhythm of water tumbling by, crashing onto rocks, or lapping up onto sand.
Water is ever-present in the form of ocean, rivers, brooks, and marshes – each with its distinct sounds, light, and inhabitants. The coastal weather and skies are ever-changing. Houses often appear perched within the landscape.
The ebb and flow of a seasonal community creates a distinct feel to the area, much like the rising and falling of the tides. Each place has its own unique pulse and it takes a few years of getting to know the light, weather, moods, and seasons before they turn into patterns.
This is the process of the unfamiliar gradually becoming familiar.
Of course, storms regularly sweep through and rearrange the landscape, making it ever-shifting, much as we are. Still, the patterns begin to emerge and, along with them, a renewed sense of self – and of possibilities ahead.
Hand-crafted paintings…
As original paintings, the intimacy of materials and act of creation is held within each piece. Feel the gesture of putting brush to paper, the glide of bristles as layers of paint are built up, the clink of the jar as a brush is wiped clean before mixing a new colour…
See the nuances of mark, the subtle texture of the watercolour paper, the transparency or thickness of the paint itself. Each element adds to a visual experience of the subject and also recalls the tactile act of painting by hand.
These paintings were made with wide, soft brushes, and a looseness of movement to express the changing weather, shifting clouds, reflections of sky and water… and the quiet moments of homes within the coastal landscape.
Rich mood & colour…
When painting, I take myself back to the feeling of that place and do everything to hold onto it while painting. This creates a rich mood that is both evocative and true – not necessarily in the sense of literal accuracy, but in that the painting captures a truth of the experience.
Capturing this mood is about an intensity of feeling and, often, a richness of colour. The blue haze of night’s descent. The muted calm of a low fog. The warm glow of a house’s windows at night.
Look closely… be drawn in… allow yourself to be lead wherever each painting takes you.
Each with its own story…
Each painting comes with its own story, thoughtfully written and enclosed on the back of the artwork. Of course, you can always choose to imagine your own story, create your own memories, and layer parts of your own life into your unique personal experience of the painting.
Yes, it’s a real place… but it’s a place of my imagination… and now yours, too.
Each painting is shared as a gift and an invitation for you to find your own meaning – and be pulled by your own feelings – as you are drawn into the paintings that speak to you most clearly.
“Slowly getting to know this new place with its salty coastal air, expansive skies, and long stretches of horizon…”
“Hearing just the snuff of seals, the chatter of birds, the rhythm of water tumbling by, crashing onto rocks, or lapping up onto sand.”
About the collection
The New Horizons Collection is a collection of twenty-two original paintings. They capture the beauty and variety of the light and weather of the coastal landscape I now call home. While many are of water and sky, I have also included some of the houses that I pass on my daily walks to the ocean. All paintings in this collection are from around the little village of Broad Cove, where I live next to the Atlantic Ocean on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.
Paintings in this collection are gouache on watercolour paper. They are signed within the painting in either the lower left or right hand side. Individual listings contain details specific to each piece.
NEW PAINTINGS BEING ADDED WEEKLY ON WEDNESDAYS UNTIL APRIL.
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Original Paintings
“Each place has its own unique pulse and it takes a few years of getting to know the light, weather, moods, and seasons before they turn into patterns… and along with them, a renewed sense of self – and of possibilities ahead.”