Beautiful Bowen

ARTIST STATEMENT: DEBORAH COOPER

“I have always been interested in art, although as a widow with three children to support I had very little time to pursue it. It was not until I retired that I was encouraged to try painting with acrylics by my good friend and renowned Canadian artist, the late Gordon Smith. Gordon was known for nurturing artists and working in art education as well as for his skill as a painter. He gave me several large pots of paint and told me to just use paper and cover it with gesso. He told me to bring my paintings to him and he would critique them.

After our first discussion he had me go home and paint seven more paintings and bring them all back to him. He discussed my work with me and offered suggestions, on one occasion actually adding a stroke of paint! He provided me with a letter of recommendation and encouraged me to show my work to others. At long last I have decided to act on his advice, not least due to the problem of storing so many paintings in my small house!

I paint a variety of subjects but the work I have assembled here is a collection of paintings inspired by the forests, lakes and marshes of Bowen Island that I observe near my house. Our ever-changing natural environment quietly and slowly changes from season to season, offering a calm, unpretentious beauty that I enjoy attempting to capture again and again.”