Many visual artists use photographs as inspiration for paintings. However, painter Cathy Friesen abstains from this practice.
“A photo might remind me of a place. But I’m not after a perfect representation. I go with the flow and what’s already in here,” said Friesen putting a hand on her heart. “It’s like music. Does it flow? I try to find the emotion of painting.”
Friesen is an expressionist who taps into raw feelings and emotions stirring beneath the surface. She expresses emotional experiences instead of physical reality, expressions that naturally flow from her colourful psyche.
“My inspiration comes from the emotion I feel when I see certain colours, and I need to get that on canvas. It may not be the exact colour of what I saw. It’s more the emotion and the energy of the moment. It’s like you’re out on a fall day and you see the golden leaves and blue sky. I want to go and paint the colours and not necessarily the tree and sky. And when I paint, I feel the stress melt away,” Friesen said.
Bold and Bright, currently a solo show exhibiting 29 florals and landscapes, is displayed at Visual Arts Studio Association (VASA) until Nov. 23. Each canvas is an emotional expression of what she sees in nature, whether it's Flower Pots' bright florals, Spring’s stark forest or Majestic’s wildflowers growing next to a mountain.
Valerie Burke, an Edmonton watercolourist, attended the Bold and Bright reception on Sunday, Nov. 3 and praised Friesen’s style.
“I can’t get enough of looking at her art because of the depth, the freedom and the harmony of colour,” she said.
Friesen is a self-described late comer to the painting scene and stumbled into it on a whim.
“I was out camping with the boys and my husband. We had stopped in Hinton and I turned to Gerald and said, ‘I have to paint.’ I went into a store and bought supplies. Once I held the paint in my hand, I was lit. I couldn’t wait to start painting. At the campsite, I took out my paint and realized I had no paper or canvas. I was disappointed I couldn’t paint, and then I looked down and there was a rock. The whole vacation I painted rocks.”
Initially, Friesen painted in realism. Once the pandemic hit, she was left isolated. However, the alone time also gave her space to experiment.
“I knew I had stuff inside me that wasn’t getting out. There was nothing to do and I started. It took me two years to develop a process.”
Her process involves slapping anywhere from five to 12 layers of paint on canvas.
“The first few layers are intuitive. Then I start putting colours on canvas and each layer informs the next. Sometimes a painting will come together just like that. At other times, it gets a bit messy in the middle and it’s time to stop. Sometimes a painting will sit in a closet for a year. I’ve learned not to push the process if it’s not here today.”
When the public views her paintings, Friesen hopes they feel joy.
“That’s what I feel when I do my best work. And if one painting ends up in a home, that’s what I want them to feel.”
