Visual Arts Nova Scotia (VANS for short) had a fundraising “event” last night, an interactive, improvisational community painting frenzy called CANVAS. A group of artists gathered together at the St. Mary’s Boat Club to work on three double-sided panels. Starting with a literary passage for inspiration, the goal was to work together to complete a “painting” by the end of the evening.
I really didn’t want to go to the event at all. It was the end of a long tiring week. I would have been happy to watch Coronation Street and then curl up with a good book (I’m now reading To Kill a Mocking Bird and enjoying it very much), but I had agreed a couple of months ago to participate so I pulled myself together and went. When I first walked into the room, I looked around and was paralyzed with the thought of painting in front of all these people. My work process is very private, time consuming, intimate. Other than my children, I’ve never allowed an audience. Then I found a like minded fellow artist and we shared our discomfort.
But to my surprise some magic happened. I found a panel that had been started with a series of large (and small) hearts outlined in black. So I found some red paint and then some yellow and started splashing the paint on. Another painter joined me and we had a wonderful time. Sometimes I would paint over his work and sometimes he changed mine. It was exciting and it was challenging and it was fun. Sometimes the painting looked like mud but because it was acrylic it was easy to bring it back to life.
The only bummer in the end was I didn’t have my camera with me. So I’m hoping someone will email me a photo and I’ll post it here later.