Artist Profile: Helen Opie
I love where I live, love life, love seeing, love weather. I love the shore, the small farms, the woods; the wharves, boats, sheds, houses and barns; the characteristics of this region. This is what brings me to being a visual artist; celebrating the here & now, investigating the minutiae of the commonplace and the everyday; enjoying the where-is, as-is of my home area. Perhaps I am also recording a vanishing way of life.
I work in various media; oils & oil sticks, watercolour, acrylic, pastel, and good old pencil-drawing. I have been a fibre artist, making quilts of my own design. My subject matter is whatever catches my attention. I love to paint outdoors, so go out whenever possible, all year round. I also like doing still lives and interiors, so there is also subject matter at hand when I'm hunkered down by my woodstove during the worst of winter.
I've been painting most of my life, 'seriously' since 1978 when my children were grown enough that I had more time for my art. I majored in studio art at Oberlin College, Oberlin OH, and have taken other formal and informal courses during the 50+ years since then. I hope to keep growing until I die, for I do not wish to get into a rut - which my high school English teacher described as "a grave - with both ends open". The open ends imply that we can always get out of the rut.
|
|
