Susan Fahrni emerges from the Columbia Valley: The Gossips

Artist Statement

I love nature and I love to try to capture it on canvas. Everything I paint means something special to me, whether it’s a scene I’ve tried to capture before it disappears, a view that holds special memories, or a glimpse of a part of our valley that I want to share with others who might not otherwise have access to it. The places I paint are real and as I paint I am ‘there’ be it perched on a mountain ridge, sitting by a lakeshore or standing upon a tussock of grass in the wetlands.
I generally work from photos, however, for me, capturing the images in paint on canvas gives them an importance, value, and even permanence that I feel photography can not.
I begin a piece by drawing key shapes on the canvas then washing a thin layer of paint on to block in the major features. I then start working from the background making my way forward envisioning what is behind and hidden by each slope, tree, etc. before I paint it. For me this working in layers gives each scene its veracity and depth.
Sunlight and its effects fascinate me. I have always admired the stained glass of medieval Europe and I love the way the sun illuminates it and shares the coloured glow with the world below. It is a man-made tribute to God and the world He created. However, His work cannot be surpassed as sunlight gives life and purpose to the colours of the real world giving them an “unearthly” glow.
When my work is going well, I feel a sense of awe and wonder and a thankfulness that I have been allowed to capture and recreate our beautiful world. Having said that, I am not certain how it happens and feel that I’ve been witness to magic as the work paints itself having merely allowed me to mix the colours and hold the paintbrush.
As I work, in my mind I see the birds and insects, feel the warmth of the sun, the caress of a breeze, and hear the rustle of leaves, the buzz of insects, the chirp and call of birds. I am transported to whatever scene I am trying to capture.
I have come to realize that my art represents who I am: passionate, realistic, yet orderly and a stickler for detail, and very ‘down-to-earth’.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Gossips

I created this painting for a fundraising gala for Pynelogs Cultural Centre in Invermere. Pynelogs is celebrating its 100th birthday and a hundred artists were asked to create a work of art for donation.

I walked from my daughter's house down to the small lake adjacent to Pynelogs in search of some inspiration and to see if the Painted Turtles had come out of hibernation.

Indeed they had. One log was covered by twenty of them basking in the sun's warmth. I was delighted to notice a Blue Heron fishing for lunch. As I made way closer to the water's edge to get a better look at the turtles out on the lake, I looked up to see the heron had landed on this log with a solitary turtle sunning himself. A spot of whimsy had me imagining the heron and turtle having a rather chatty time gossiping about the upcoming party and Pynelogs. I couldn't help but smile to myself and think what a perfect image to capture on canvas.

I am having so much fun working on black gessoed canvas that I felt compelled to paint 'the gossips' on black.

The Gossips of Dorothy Lake
12 x 12
acrylic on canvas

Susan Fahrni emerges from the Columbia Valley

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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Gossips

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