“Time flies when you are having fun,” JoAnn Nanninga, the president of the Barrhead Art Club and January’s artist-of-the-month, said.
“I started drawing as a child,” she added, explaining that it was the first step of many along her artistic journey.
“When I was in my 20s, I got into pen-and-ink and water-colour painting, and then later acrylics and mixed media.”
According to Nanninga, the majority of her early works feature a more realism-based approach than her later semi-abstract styling.
In the past, while taking an art certification course at the University of Athabasca extension, Nanninga related that she was told to narrow her interests in art and to focus more on just one genre.
“I kept that in the back of my mind, but I never felt like I could,” she said, adding that a former teacher from St. Albert had other ideas.
That teacher, visual arts instructor Samantha Williams-Chapelsky, Nanninga explained, told her that she was one of the people to whom that rule did not apply. Nanninga said she is a person that dabbles in a variety of art forms, adding that she agreed with Williams-Chapelsky’s assessment.
“I felt like the University’s critique was not accurate in some ways,” she said.
When she took up print-making this past summer, Nanninga said everything clicked with her.
“I’m finding many of my fellow artists are saying that I’ve found my niche. I know I am really comfortable with it, and it doesn’t mean I want to give up everything else, but it is nice to hear.”
When a person feels confident in a certain area, it is a nice feeling, she said, adding that while every artist has a favoured element, hers was the outdoors.
“I feel more confident in the drawing aspects of art and I would say that’s part of my natural ability, whereas colour and composition are things that I have had to work at over the years.”
Pointing to noteworthy people such as Emily Carr and Georgia O’Keeffe as some of her own sources of inspiration, Nanninga said influences could be found anywhere.
“My dad liked art and was doing a lot of drawings which was where my initial inspiration came from, and later in life, when I needed a creative outlet, I joined the art club in the 1980s.”
“There were a few years when I wasn’t a member but time flies when you’re having fun,” Nanninga said, adding the club has been good for her because the other artists inspire each other. “We’ve had some really great teachers, Margaret Nadeau for one. She is really what got the art club started and a lot of us got our basic knowledge there.”
Sculpture, woodcarving and jewelry making are three art forms that Nanninga has not tried yet, however, she admitted woodcarving is something she would like to do.
“It all depends on how far into a craft you want to go,” she said, adding that she tries different things all of the time and enjoys it all.
One piece of advice Nanninga offered to would-be artists was to take art courses and join a club.
“Having knowledgeable instructors is an invaluable experience,” she added.
“There was a book that I picked up in an airport – I can’t remember where it is anymore, but it was about successful people and it said that the amount of hours needed to become adept at something was around 10,000. The book looked at all sorts of people, from hockey players to chefs and whatnot, and yes, each of those successful people had taken that much time. I think it is something like 10 years in total and I think that is an accurate number.”
The Barrhead Art Gallery, located beside Spring Sun restaurant and the Barrhead Registries Office, is open Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and currently showcases some of Nanninga’s works that range from the pen-and-ink drawings of her earlier years to her more recent print-making endeavours.
