Sometimes, all it takes is the promise of company to inspire a little burst of productivity. The “guests are coming” effect is real in our home. Not long ago, that familiar scenario collided with something unexpected: I had just sold a large painting that we kept in our bathroom. Yes, in the bathroom. The canvas had been wrapped around the outside of our shower, adding life and color to a space most people consider purely functional.
When it came down, the wall looked strangely bare. With dinner guests arriving the next day, I felt a spark of urgency. I dashed to my studio, unrolled loose canvas, cut a fresh piece and covered it with energetic blocks of color. Once dry, I tacked it up in time for the soirée. Crisis averted.
As weeks passed, I grew fond of that impromptu painting, but the bold colors carried more energy than the room wanted to hold. Later, when we repainted the bathroom, I brought the piece back to my studio, where it began a transformation.
I realized that those vibrant beginnings could become something deeper. Our lives had recently shifted from sunny Florida back to Canada (you can read more about that journey here), and I felt compelled to paint that emotional geography. The palm trees, the warm light, the little pink houses that became landmarks of our time in the south. And then the miles homeward. I found myself adding small roads that twisted and curved, tiny cars and trucks making their way north. There are people there too, and dogs, of course. Everything and everyone that mattered along the way.
As the painting developed, the seasons changed within it. Forests, fields, cities. Leaves turning and eventually falling away. The familiar cool breath of Gore welcoming us back.
Everything circles around a center, almost like a memory map. Surreal, layered, one moment flowing into the next. Much like life tends to do.
Time and Place is a journey that now holds many stories. A reminder that home is not only where we are, but where we have been. And sometimes, the art that arrives in a hurry ends up being the art that reveals something true.