Long story short: I paint. It is fun. :)
		Short story long: My name is Lucie and I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I'm glad you could join me as I unleash my inner painter! I've been painting steadily since January 2004, and I credit my friend Emelisa Mudle, an Australian Artist, for kicking the whole thing off! Over a 4 day period, she sat with me on my living room floor, and showed me how to "let go through paint." ME: "But what do I painnnt?" EM: "Anything. Just play with the colors. . . " She led me through laying some paint down and playing with the colors, without heavy thought to where the painting was 'going'. Just paint! You mean it's OK?? I can just paint? (Somehow I thought the Paint Police would shut me down!) Just paint. What a concept! One that changed the way I look at painting, and the whole creative process, forever. Thanks, Em. Funny/tragic how fragile our creative beings are, but then again, not surprising considering they spend most of their lives hiding under the couch. Honestly, I believe all ANY of us need is ~permission~. That's what Emelisa gave me. And *poof* I give it to you!

That was some 200 + paintings ago, and I've forged ahead on my own, learning something with every painting, and really seeing that there are no mistakes in painting, only 'happy accidents'. I never know what it's going to be! Even when I *think* I know what I want to do, I usually end up surprised with what emerges! HOW I WORK: I've come to notice that the times I want to paint are the times I'm heavy with feeling... usually melancholy, don't ask me why, I just come from that place often... and the best release for it I've found (besides running) is to paint it out.

I usually start a sad painting! Painting settles me so much though, that as I get engrossed in the process, I cheer up and it changes direction! For my pallete, I used to have a square piece of wood, about 14"x14" and I put blobs (sorry, sometimes I forget myself and get too technical...) of color all around the perimeter, keeping things in loose 'color families', and do all my mixing in the middle area of the board. Once my paints are set out, I ignore my pallete and work straight from tubes! Go figure! I do this until larger areas of the canvas are filled and then start using the pallete. UPDATED Apr/08: What I've been using lately, though, is a 'wet pallete', which is a large square tray fitted with a large, thin, square sponge sheet that you wet, upon which you place a water-soaked sheet of special paper that you squirt and mix your colors onto. The whole thing has a lid so it doesn't dry out. It's the best way I've found to preserve my acrylics a long time. In the past, a blob of paint would dry up and be wasted after a session, but I can re-visit the same blob for quite a while this way! haha, like, a week or more, depending! The colors I choose are determined only by my whim, and I just 'have at it' until I fall in love with a direction it's going. If I don't fall in love, I move on, paint over it, scrape it off, whatever it takes. I'm ruthless! The painting reveals itself to me, but only after wooing it for a few days and a few layers of what others might call failed paintings. To me, though, there are no failed paintings, the paintings I paint over are the WAY to the painting I end up happy with. Without these stepping stones I would never cross the creek, so to speak.

Before I met Emelisa, I had painted before, just a couple little watercolors with 10 years between them, and I used to paint the papier mache figures I made. But I had never painted on a canvas, not with acrylics and certainly not with oils. (That was for 'real artists' wasn't it?) Em and I had painted on a large piece of drywall, but once she flew back to Australia, and I was on my own, I started really small, a 5x7paint board that came with my starter paint kit. I evolved into bigger paint boards and one day grew into a big-girl canvas! It was only a matter of a couple more paintings before I had to feed the need and get bigger and bigger canvases! As I grew, so did the size of my art! My biggest one to date is 36"x40" and I am not stopping there. Note: Don't ever just stare at a blank white canvas. It will stare you down and win. What you've got to do is put some color on it, even a light wash, anything. What that does is put you back in command by shrinking the vastness down. Tame that beast! My only real 'rule' of painting is that once I start a canvas, I am going to finish that particular canvas. The final result will RARELY look anything like the first go, and I've come to expect that. But I stick with that canvas, even through its awkward stages, even when a canvas with a fresh white surface winks at me from the corner of my studio. Can't just love it when it's cute, just like having kids :) Funny thing, sometimes the boyfriend will walk in and say, "Oh wow, that' s really neat, I like that..." only to walk in a while later to see a completely different painting. Now when he comes in, I see him looking and I say, "Don't get used to it!" I've been known to ball up and toss a piece of paper after the first wrong mark, and this 'sticking with the canvas' thing...through all its awkward growing phases, is helping me with my tendencies to scrap something when it's not *perfect*. Boy, does putting a paint brush in my hand ever force me to let go of the notion of perfect! It has damn near cured me! If I was waiting to have a perfect painting I'd give up, haha, but fortunately, there's a part of me, ~ the Sensible Creative Muse ~ who knows what's right and good in the world of art, well, my art, and who whispers directions in my ear and who comes straight from the heart. I've learned to trust this completely. She tells me when to start and most importantly, when to stop. (You have one, too.) Bottom line, every painting is a process, a journey. And just like any journey, there are long highways, unexpected curves, potholes, and occasionally, dead ends. But also just like any journey, there is always a destination. There are many ways to get somewhere and I choose to throw caution to the wind, paint without a 'map' and explore my way there. On this website, I have some examples of the process it takes to create my paintings. You might be interested to have a look, the section is called "State of the Art". If you want to reach me, please send me an email or Sign my Guestbook! I'm glad you're here. Make yourself comfy and enjoy your stay!

Soon after I started painting, I started making magnets and greeting cards of my art, which I sell in local shops.

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