Corie’s painting of the Nassagaweya Canyon won the December spot in the 2021 BTC calendar.
Five years ago, when I was having a rough time in my job, I was looking for a way to release stress, anxiety and uncertainty. I’m a positive person and I see life as a gift, so I put into practise my timid painting knowledge and skills and started to paint. I started with acrylics and tempera, but soon, watercolours became my most loyal friend and came with me everywhere. Painting became my second job, over weekends, along with outdoor trips into the woods. Both pastimes make my soul laugh, rise and be happy.
A few years into my new passion, someone stopped me and asked if I was not bored with taking trips into the forest and seeing the same sceneries or repetitive landscapes that are found everywhere. In that moment, I realized that for some people the “forest” is just a place, a passage or a corridor to pass through, without excitement or pleasure, a kind of emotionless journey. For me, trips into nature are essential food for my soul and spirit and, ultimately, for my paintings. An emotion, a light, a breeze are all intangible concepts, and somehow, they still shape my painting. As well, sometimes moments on the trips bring back childhood memories that lift my soul and thrill my senses in the present.
To me “Nature composition” is reflected on my retina and transposed onto the surface of the canvas or whatever material I am working on. It goes through multiple transformations, emotionally and physically. My goal is not to create a mirror image of the picture but to express and interpret a feeling that was hidden and now surfaces as joy and as a sacred moment on the essential existence.
The first stroke of the brush is the first step into unknown, much like the first step in a hike, but at the end you feel exhilarated, and promise yourself that you will do it again. In my painting, the final stroke is that wow that lifts the spirit.
I am so thankful and grateful that I found my purpose and inspiration in life thru paintings and hobbies, since I became an enthusiastic BTC member 12 years ago.