Pivotal point

A painting by Susan Abbott on A Painter's Year this morning brought me back to the beginning of my art career, that difficult time when I wondered if I wanted to take a leap at middle age and really shake things up. Questions were running rampant in my mind the summer of 2001 while I was on a "painting" holiday in France. Interestingly enough, because I had done very little painting up to that point, it was really an "exploration of painting" holiday. Two friends and I stayed at a farmhouse owned by Newfoundland artist, Ilse Hughes, who provided room and board and instruction for a two week block.



Two other Newfoundland artists, sculptor, Luben Boykov and painter, Elena Popova were also on site and provided instruction. Elena works in monotype and I loved the vibrancy and spontanity of this printmaking process which allowed me to create art that was quite different from any I had created before. On my fourth monotype, standing in a sunflower field near the farmhouse, painting oil on plexiglass, I decided to be an artist. Why don't I look happier?