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Visually Speaking: Valley Artists Share Their Goals for 2020
By Anna Horsnell
Happy New Year! This is that time of year: if not for resolutions, then for personal plans for the coming year. The following visual artists have very kindly agreed to share their artistic goals and dreams for 2020. This is an invitation to follow their creative journey. We’ll catch up with them later for a mid-year and end-of-year update to discover their challenges and celebrate their success. Let’s inspire each other.
Twila Robar-DeCoste: I plan to finish the certificate course in botanical illustration from RBGE Edinburgh, and use my new knowledge to paint beautiful things from the garden and forest, and dust off my oils.
Heather Alexis Porter: My goal is to start and finish a series of abstract paintings called “Digging and Scratching.” I will share my progress, inspiration, and the paintings on Instagram and Facebook.
Susan Spicer: This year I plan to really focus on finding unique and unexpected objects to transform with my painting. The hunt is part of my process, imagining what could be.
Ron Hayes: My next endeavour is a new series of paintings for an exhibition with Michael Greer in May, and I’ll continue to teach painting throughout 2020.
Koto Shimokuni Rumble: I want to share hope and peace through my art next year, with a wonderful community with beautiful people.
Ruth Fishleigh: My goal for 2020 is to loosen up and play. I want to be more relaxed and spontaneous in my art. I am planning to paint on larger surfaces with larger brushes in working toward this goal.
Doretta Groenendyk: I guess to live more stories, hear more stories, and create more stories.
Judy Shedden: My new year goals would be getting to know other painters in the artistic community, and finding more venues where I can display and sell my work.
Eileen Boyd: I plan to offer more workshops, get better at marketing, complete some half-finished projects, and rid myself of the junk I will never use!
Ron Lightburn: To seek out, interpret, and celebrate the mundane and the unfamiliar. Rediscover and re-imagine the familiar. Paint BIGGER. Paint outdoors. Paint more!
Betsey Harwood: My goal for this coming year is to show my work more and to further explore the colours of the Annapolis Valley landscape in my paintings.
Colleen Gerrits: I absolutely love teaching art classes and that keeps me busy, so I need to be more intentional with my time. My goal for 2020 is to set in some more personal painting time.
Kate McKenna: My goal for 2020 is to write a proposal for an exhibition of my textile designs and photography, submit it to the gallery I would like to exhibit in, and mount the show.
Elizabeth Sircom: Having watched work in progress (wet clay) fly off my turntable, I resolve to be wary of centrifugal forces, both real and in the metaphorical sense, and to see intriguing works completed.
Judith Leidl: Currently “A Show of Many Colours” in Wolfville with Isobel Leidl Wilson, then I will focus on a series of thematic and narrative paintings. We are also working on launching our wearable art line.
Rachel Reeve: I am awaiting replies on submissions to several Halifax galleries and an artist residency application, plus plans to offer adult art classes at my studio, and new work to prepare a solo exhibition.
Bob Hainstock: My goals are for creative collaborations with my artist wife of fifty years, our talented daughter, and my fellow gallery artists, as well as to complete some writing projects for my 75th birthday.
Anna Horsnell: My goals are to complete preparations on a new series of paintings for my upcoming solo show in April, and to listen carefully, look openly, and offer understanding through my abstract art.
And, of course, I will happily share more features and interviews in The Grapevine from our amazing visual art community. There’s lots more to come.
Photo: Kate McKenna
