Finding Art by the Side of the Road

Staying inspired as an artist demands that you fill your mental and spiritual well. One of my favourite ways to do this is to travel. Changing your location changes your view. You see new things or familiar things in new ways. 

I’m on holiday this week in Nova Scotia. We’re road-tripping from Peggy’s Cove to Lunenburg to Inverness, driving, walking, taking pictures and re-charging our souls. Along the way I know I’ll find art. 

There’s always lots of other people’s art to be seen in Nova Scotia. It must be something about the clear air and the sea that makes it such a hothouse of creativity. The picture above is from from Twelve Acre Hill Gallery, a tiny perfect gem of a gallery near Peggy’s Cove run by my good friend, painter Philip Hodges. 

But it’s not just the inspiration of other artists that I’ll find along the way. I know I’ll also find my own art. I’ll see things that will strike me. Maybe just the way the sun hits the water at a particular moment, or maybe the shape of a tree as we pass by it on a lane, but those moments will catch at my mind. I’ll turn them into photos and sketches. Those photos and sketches will chat for a while in my head, and be iterated into drawings. The drawings will be mixed and matched and re-drawn, sometimes many times. At the end of this process, there will be prints or paintings. Art from the side of the road.

I'll be posting from my trip on Instagram, so make sure you follow me there and watch my stories if you want snaps from the road.

 

PS. While I’m away, you can still order prints. All prints up to 20” will ship September 10th. Large prints will ship September 18th.