When Jo Ann Nanninga sits before a blank canvas she is embarking on a journey without maps.
She has little idea where her hand will guide her, even when the subject is in plain view.
Sometimes she is overjoyed at the result, sometimes disappointed – but often she is surprised, and this is what feeds her adventuresome spirit.
“I like to capture the experience of where I am,” she says. “I don’t have a finished product in mind when I start painting.”
It was a similar spirit of adventure that took Nanninga, Maria Sieben, Marilynn Jefferys, Phyllis Nanninga, Betty Wysosky and Roberta Peirson to Newfoundland in September.
The six Barrhead Art Club members were setting out on an artistic journey without a clear destination. For instead of paintbrushes, they used a palette knife.
Their guide was Doug Downey, an impressionist knife painting specialist, who demonstrated his techniques during a six-day workshop, covering composition, tonal values, colour, hard and soft edges and creating textures.
Each day the six visited a different outside location accompanied by Downey, who looked over their work, offering advice.
“A typical day was to have breakfast at 8 a.m.,” says Nanninga. “Then we would go off, meet Doug and drive for 30 minutes or an hour. He had some location in mind.”
Nanninga, born and raised in Edmonton, immediately found she was in her element.
Throughout her artistic life, from the time she drew Mickey Mouse as an eight-year-old to studying with Margaret Nadeau and exploring different media as a club member, Nanninga has loved the outdoors.
Her painting reflects this. At the recent fall exhibition, Nanninga’s work included scenes of the Queen Charlotte Islands and Thunder Lake.
She is also drawn to impressionist-style painting, being a big admirer of Cezanne and Monet, as well as the Group of Seven, Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933. Emily Carr, who is closely associated with the group, is a particular inspiration.
Nanninga likes her own work to suggest rather than make statements, to present possibilities more than certainties, and to stir the imagination. If it has a little roughness to it, then so much the better.
As she puts it, if her aim is to produce a facsimile of a landscape, then wouldn’t a camera be a better tool than a paintbrush or palette knife?
It led to some interesting workshop discussion about intent and accomplishment, with each artist showing preference for different disciplines.
“It was amazing watching Doug do a demonstration,” she says. “He is such a perfectionist. He likes everything to be absolutely perfect.”
Nanninga’s energy led her to work on several paintings in a single day.
It was part of that adventuresome spirit, driving her on to explore, to keep surprising herself.
Palette knife painting, she found, which involves laying on paint thickly, was relatively forgiving on mistakes.
Although the workshop opened her eyes, Nanninga was not a complete novice in the palette technique.
“I had tried it on my own and was interested in learning more,” she says. “Newfoundland was the second time I had done it.”
It was not all about painting. The six had the chance to see icebergs, sample spectacular scenery, and experience traditional Newfoundland culture and hospitality, including kitchen parties, boat tours and a home-cooked jigs dinner.
They listened to funny skits put on by local people, and heard a musician play the accordion.
They also visited the old general store in Rattling Brook, which was featured on the TV show Land and Sea in October, where they tried on old hats and hand-made mittens.
On their last night they took part in the “screech in” ceremony, a tradition that involves kissing a fish and drinking Screech rum.
“It meant we are now honourable Newfoundlanders,” says Nanninga.
“We stayed at the Coffee Cove Retreat and were so well taken care off by our hosts Nola and Paul that we are sure to go back.”
The group returned to Barrhead, loaded with souvenirs, gifts, pictures and unforgettable memories.
The work of the six artists will be displayed on Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3 in the new gallery next door to Pepper’s Restaurant, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. each day.
The exhibition has been titled “I ’ears the call of the Sea” (Newfoundlanders tend to drop their ‘h’s). Paintings will also be on sale.
“It will be the one and only time that the paintings done in Newfoundland will be shown all at once and at the same time,” said art club president Sieben.
