VCA2025

This painting made in watercolours features a character, Anne of Green Gables, specifically from the 2017 tv series, Anne With an E, a favourite of mine.

This is a two part painting of a friend's cats made in gouache.

This is the second cat gouache painting I made for my friend's cats.

“Dapper Owl” is a part of the series, “Tea & Tales”, where I created whimsical paintings of creatures enjoying tea which were inspired by story books I read as a child. Painted in watercolours, this artwork is of a quiet and studious owl, surrounded by books and tea, being offered a potion from travelling mice. I began my painting by using light layers, eventually building up the opacity and details. The background was made using a salting technique.

This painting was inspired by my love of music and the emotions we go through when listening to our favourite songs. I began this piece by playing different songs and beats and let them guide my brushstrokes. I did incorporated elements I envision when listening to those songs.

This painting is about escapism, trying to avoid my stressful environment by ignoring it. To me, hares have always been fantastical creatures, as if they could slip between worlds, much like Alice in Wonderland. In this piece they are used to symbolize a way to escape reality. Through this artwork, I expressed the silent, suffocating weight of overwhelm. The hair tightens, the leaves swallow, and even the animals in my own imagination are unable to escape. Ultimately, "Hare-y Situation" is more about accepting the sense of being stuck—observing the world go by while you're caught up in your own mental tangles—than it is about finding a way out.

This piece is called Haven, it is made with oils, and the background is mixed media, mainly made up of found papers on an oval shaped canvas. This painting is about embodying a personal place of comfort. And doing research for this painting I looked for ways that comfort manifested in my life. These elements represent a collection of memories and feelings that define my safe space. The focal point is my dog, who, as anyone who has pets knows, brings me a lot of relief and comfort. The background includes little tid bits of what I enjoy doing and generally what brings me joy, such as reading, listening to music and my favorite colour, green. I’ve even included a nod to my love of clothing, which is lace. The little drawings, ripped from a book, illustrate the ways people such as friends and family bring comfort as well. This painting is more of a visual diary, my hope is that people can see reflections of their own comfort and connection within the piece.

In this painting there is a figure, in her messy studio, working on a painting. Swimming around her are different colourful fish, bringing a surreal element to the work, as it plays with scale and impossibilities.This piece was about intensity, not only intensity of labour but of the intensity of getting lost in your work. When you focus so hard, you lose track of time and even your mind goes still.

This is a lithograph portrait of myself and my dog, Milo. We are surrounded by leaves that look like a wreath. This piece is about my love for my dog

This painting is a part of my series, Tea & Tales, where I was inspired by the whimsical stories of anthropomorphic animals I read as a child. These stories and hand painted illustrations made me want to immerse myself in those worlds. My goal for these two paintings was to create my own enchanting world, where viewers can imagine a narrative for themselves and rediscover a bit of childhood wonder.

This picture depicts a figure suspended in an underwater setting, slowly rising as her head breaks the surface, capturing a peaceful moment of mental wandering. I wanted to create an environment that is both peaceful and disorienting like the transitional area where thoughts take over and the outside world disappears. Using oils, I used a dreamy palette of purples, greens and pops of yellow, to reflect the transcendent feeling you may feel when you daydream. This piece is about your mind wandering and being carried away by thoughts, the now-submerged room represents how familiar surroundings fade away as you go further into yourself, allowing memories, anxieties, and daydreams to drag you down. However, it also has a calm and softness to it. The figure is floating, lost someplace between reality and reflection, rather than struggling.