A Columbia Valley watercolour artist is offering a series of unique lessons, entitled ‘Painting from the Heart.’

Carol Gordon is hosting lessons that began Sept. 14 and run until March, 2013 at Pynelogs Cultural Centre.

Adults and children who are interested in joining this empowering studio-oriented class can start at any time during the series of sessions.

Just give Pynelogs a call and register to start when you’re ready. No  need to wait until the next or winter session starts, due concern for weeks missed due to travel or other plans that make it necessary to miss some of the weeks. You can attend missed classes in the next session. Students receive group and individual instruction and mentoring while devoting most of the class time to painting from the heart.

About Carol

“My paintings are an expression of my heart and soul.  I paint my tears, my joy, my anger, the love I feel, all the emotions I experience.  Using water, paper, brush and pigment, I give my feelings expression and a voice.  In so doing, I transform them before my very eyes. It’s an alchemical process.  My paintings become my sonnets and my poetry.  They are my short stories.  They are my operas and blues.  They are my Jazz.  And they are my teachers and my mentors.”- Carol Gordon, Invermere, British Columbia

At a young age, Carol turned to photography and journal writing in an attempt as a means of self-expression. She moved to Canada in 1970 from the United States, after receiving a Bachelor’s of Art Degree from the University of California at Berkeley. She met her life partner, Jim McElroy, at the Banff Center, School of Fine Arts Photography Program, in which they were both enrolled.  Carol then spent several years in Vancouver working as a freelance photographer and writer and teaching photography for the University of British Columbia, Department of Continuing Education, as well as for the Vancouver School Board.  She has always been interested in “capturing the true essence of a person” and her writing and photography helped her do this. She found it rewarding to teach others this explorative ability and to be a part of their creative journey.

Carol enrolled in the Emily Carr School of Art to study watercolor painting in 1975.  She felt a need to explore a medium that went further than her camera could into the emotional underworld.

“I wanted to work with a medium in which I could explore, express, and record the travels and seasons of my inner world.  I wanted to create directly from my heart, from my intuition, my feelings and less from my head.  It’s a voice from an inner world.” Photography for me has been a way of capturing what I see in the visible world.  I write to express my thoughts and my feelings, perceptions and ideas.  In my paintings, I am documenting energy.  I am documenting the energy of what I feel and sense, making visible the energy of a situation, a relationship, an experience.”

Carol’s abstract patterns of color and texture are reminiscent of landscapes not unlike those in the Canadian Rockies and the Saskatchewan Prairies.  They are often described as ‘landscape fantasies’, ‘inner landscapes’, or ‘paintings one can dream in.’ The paintings remain unnamed so as to provide the viewer with the opportunity to find his or her own meaning and point of reference in them.

“I’m not fixed on form,” says Carol, “I think I’ve always painted Energy. That’s what our world is all about energy.  Everything we experience is the interaction of energy. I call my work “Colours of Energy”.

Carol’s work has exhibited her work in numerous shows and galleries throughout the 1980s and 1990s, stretching from Vancouver to Regina.  Several of the regional group and solo exhibitions: the Canmore Artists & Artisans Guild 1980-1982, an organization she helped to found; the Peter Whyte Museum (Banff) 1982 ‘Exceptional Pass’ exhibition and a solo show and lecture in Spring 1987; and a small retrospective at the Pynelogs Cultural Centre shortly after she and Jim moved to the valley full-time in 1999. By the mid ‘90’s, Carol felt the need to step back from her painting and the intensity of her creative process.  The ‘break’ made it possible for her to invest her energy into building a wellness business that would one day allow her the financial freedom to continue along her artistic path.  Like her art, Carol’s wellness business is based on energy and balance.

After a decade long sabbatical, Carol has picked up her brush again with renewed passion.  The latest creations are colorful, bold and expressive.  Her work appeared this summer in Pynelog’s Annual Group Show in June and through Labor Day weekend has had an art booth at the Invermere Farmer’s Market (in front of Village Arts) and will have a booth at the Windermere Fall Fair in September.  Carol has also begun teaching art classes once again and is as passionate about teaching art as she is about creating art.  Both give her the opportunity to participate in the creative process.

For the classes: Minimum number:  five students; Maximum: 12 students.

Supplies: A short list of supplies needed (available locally) will be sent in your confirmation email upon registration.

Please register early by calling 250-342-4423 or emailing: [email protected]

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