48x36x2 acrylic on glorious canvas!!
They are my expression of joy and happiness!! I painted this when Jack was building me a studio in the back of our house.
We were renting a ground floor/ basement apartment on Easy 43rd Ave, in Vancouver., directly across the street from the grave yard. Just a block or two away from little India, my neighbors were mainly East Indian. I loved it when they had special occasions, because the ladies wore extremely beautiful sari’s. (very inspiring) plus I loved the kids, who would come by once in a while to paint in the studio. When I was walking down the street, I would end up with a little group of girls, skipping happily behind me. “Kathy, can we paint today!!”
In the back of the house, and what was originally our bedroom, was three-quarters of the garage. The part that had its own door to the outside. The other part was used by the landlord to store things, and was separated by a wall and a door. A generously sized room, and after Priscilla and Angela moved out, we took Angela and Priscilla’s room and decided to make this my art studio.
Jack and I were a bit empty nesty after the kids left, and creating the studio definitely helped with that!!
When we talked about putting the studio there, there were lots of problems. One of them was that our landlord had a garden out front, and allowed the flowers to die and wither. So in front of the house were many dead flowers. It didn’t look very appealing, and I didn’t feel comfortable trimming his flowers for him, but I couldn’t stand it! When I had people over, I would rake the front yard, remove any junk I could, and covertly trim the flowers. At the back of our house was junk piled high. old cars, clothes, shoes, toys, you name it!! I didn’t want people walking down the path beside our house, to the studio/ garage door, to see junk everywhere. I knew it would scare people off. Also, the building itself was lopsided inside the garage, and the ceiling and floor where not an equal distance from each other throughout the room.
We decided, after much discussion, that having a location where we could hang our paintings, and leave them hanging at no extra monthly expense to us, would be worth while, and we could camouflage the junk in the back yard, by building a lovely fence to hide that part of the yard. I asked my fourth husband Bruce to finance the renovations to convert the garage into a studio/ gallery and he said yes, and together, he and Jack figured out how to level the space between the ceiling and the floor, so that Jack could install huge sliding doors, that were put in front of the closet area, so we could hang paintings on those, and we bought a carpet for the floor, and beautiful draperies. Susy helped me pick those. They were for a small wall, that had no potential to hang paintings, and covered some unattractive area in the room. ( without Bruce’s help, this studio would not have happened. He financed everything and helped us get the lumber, and draperies. I just have to give him a mention here, even though mentioning ex-husband and current husband in the same paragraph might be treading on turbulent waters. LOL) Jack did all the work inside and out. He built the most beautiful little court-yard outside of the door. Brilliantly created a free-standing natural wood, lattice fence and put our beautiful alder love seat back there. It was a lovely space, just outside the studio. (I loved painting in my little courtyard, and I loved having people over in the summer and being able to have the door open, we could sit outside and also go inside. My beautiful sister Susy helped me pick the colors for the walls, and with a lot of hard work, we ended up with a lovely studio, where people could walk down the path beside our house and open the door. And there it was. An art gallery of Kathy Poitras paintings and at first, Susy Mallin lamps. I was thrilled!!! I created this painting around that time. Feeling so happy, there I am in the painting. The delighted purpley pink flower about to take off and fly into new realms!!
http://www.artcardswanted.com/card.cfm?ID=21429
48×36 inches, acrylic. I believe Night Flowers traveled to Africa with the lovely lady who purchased it. I painted this painting with a discontinued color that I just adore. I haven`t been able to duplicate it. It`s `venetian rose`and the color inspired this entire painting. I looked at this wonderful blank canvas, and this pot of paint that I just brought home and wham. This idea materialized, and some metallic ink, and off I went. First came the big yellow flower, and then the orange one. All of this, so I could put the venitian rose in the background! Always, I am moved by emotions to paint. But what moves my emotions can be as simple as a pot of a fabulous color, or a particularly beautiful embroidery thread. Sometimes it is love, or hurt that moves me. I suppose all of these things are always tied into the paintings. For this painting, it was the emotion about the color. I wanted to drink that pot of paint!! I just loved it so much. One day when we get a very private plot of land, I will sit in a mud puddle and play with the mud. I`ll put it all over my skin, and in my hair, like I did when I was a kid. I know it sounds crazy, but it`s the same emotion as wanting to drink a pot of paint.(I would never do it, but it`s the wanting I`m talking about here) It`s loving the color so much that I want to be that color. Or be the mud. Now that`s living!
Kathy Poitras: The Stories Behind the Paintings 