Roberta Peirson’s paintings are like a diary.
Many are created during outside workshops or excursions, each one recording a place and time.
Sometimes they evoke an incident, such as the day a horse removed a painting from her easel and nonchalantly trotted off.
“It had my painting between its teeth,” she smiles. “Everyone was rolling on the ground laughing.”
Another incident occurred during a five-day art camp in the Kootenay Plains. She and her group discovered they had been sharing their trailer with a black bear; the animal had taken to sleeping beneath the vehicle.
As Peirson never throws away her work, she has many other anecdotes.
“I could talk all day about some of the things that have happened,” she laughs. “Each of my paintings is like a memory.”
If you want to dip into Peirson’s scrapbook of memories then visit the Art Gallery, next to Pepper’s Restaurant. She is Barrhead Art Club’s “artist of the month” in March and will also be on hand to talk about her work on Monday.
Peirson had to wait until after childhood to begin her artistic journey.
Raised near Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, she did very little art at school. Art was not a mainstream subject, perhaps seen as an impractical career option.
It was only when she moved to Edmonton in the mid-1970s that her latent artistry surfaced.
She joined a group called “Oil Wives” – a reference to their husbands being in the oil business – and took instruction from Meredith Evans
“I suppose that inspired me,” she says.
In 1980, Peirson moved to Westlock, where she lives to this day. She became a member of Westlock Art Club.
A big influence in her life at this stage was an artist called Jenny Sterling, who roused her creative instincts.
As a regular participant in Paul Braid’s five-day outdoor art camps for about 20 years, Peirson visited beauty spots like Jasper, Cypress Hills, Pincher Creek and Slave Lake.
It allowed her to explore her love of landscape oil paintings, something that endures to this day.
Trees, mountains, the sights of the natural world – they are what fill her heart with joy, not the confines of a city, not the shapes and angles of buildings.
There is nothing she likes more than to drive to a scenic spot in the company of artists and begin painting.
“The hours go by and I’m not even aware of it,” she says. “Even though I am in a group I paint alone. It is how I like it.
“In Paul Braid’s camp I used to have a dog by my side as I painted.”
Unlike many other artists, Peirson does not paint from a photograph.
She prefers to paint “in the moment.”
“I get a better feeling for it that way,” she says. “I feel more at home and inspired.
“Later I can look at a painting and remember everything that I did that day.”
Her idea is not to produce a mirror image of what is before her, rather an impression.
“I can move mountains if it works for the painting,” she laughs.
Peirson joined Barrhead Art club about 10 years ago, attracted by the town’s vibrant art scene: many of the members share her passion for the outdoors.
In September 2011, for instance, she was one of six art club members who went to Newfoundland to learn how to paint with a palette knife.
Their instructor 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.
Although Peirson prefers oils, she is not averse to trying other media.
“”I’ve tried mixed media, acrylics and have done some Paverpol sculptures,” she says. “I like to try new things, but in the end I always go back to oils.”
Later in life than she would have wished, Peirson has been consumed by wanderlust.
One of her ambitions is to take her easel and paints to Ireland, a land close to her spirit: she is a first generation Irish lady.
“It is such a beautiful place, so green, no wonder it is called the Emerald Isle,” she says. “Do you know they even have palm trees there?”
Other places on her “to visit” list are northern Scotland, Tuscany and Iceland.
The world is opening up for Peirson … and she is happy to receive it.
“I am still learning as an artist, and will go on learning,” she says.
