Anne Bogle has contemplated the letter B for most of her life. One tends do to that with one's initial. When she was called upon for the Prince George Citizen's Alphabet Project, translating that into an image was actually challenging, since she was so immersed in the letter on a personal level.
After several starts at the canvas and a lot of contemplation, she let the mood of the letter lead the way: B equals blue, beach, bounding waves.
Part of her ponderances of the project were on being included at all. She was somewhat taken aback by the invitation made the The Citizen and its project partner the Community Arts Council.
"We have just such an amazing arts scene here. I can't believe the amazing amounts of talent in Prince George. We have quite the community of painters and other artists," said the veteran watercolour specialist who recently made the switch to acrylic.
Those who know that arts scene are certainly not of the mind to discount Bogle from any respective group art initiative. She is one of the city's most lauded painters over the decades and was one of the city's famed Milltown Artists, a group of five painters who worked together over many years to depict their region. Their shows were celebrated far and wide, their works made part of public and private art collections, and their name stamped forever on the cultural fabric.
Flip through the below slideshow to view the Alphabet Project art and a link to each artist story:
She moved, for a spell, settling in Nanaimo where she was as active as ever as an artist. She returned for family reasons, she had grandchildren to be near, but she was also eager to return to an arts scene she learned to appreciate even more from afar.
"Nanaimo has a tremendous number of very good painters," she said. "But they don't have anything like Studio 2880 (the Community Arts Council headquarters). I didn't realize just how important that place is until I didn't have it anymore. What they do there to get artists doing their thing, getting art into the public eye, and bringing artists together to learn from each other and just know about each other, it's a rare thing. I'm so glad I have that again."
Since she's been home, for instance, she has been called upon by the CAC to paint a three-by-five-foot painting now on display at the Prince George Airport.
She was one of the featured live artists working at the International Women's Day art event organized by the CNC Faculty Association and held at Art Space.
Then She was brought into the fold of 26 artists for the The Alphabet Project.
Groop Gallery called on her to have her own show and sale downtown.
Coming up soon she'll be putting three new paintings into the annual 6x6 Art Auction in which all works are a maximum of six inches by six inches.
"You know, it has actually been harder to do a good job of those tiny paintings than it is to do a canvas like this," she said pointing to her latest acquisition, a blank flat the size of a tabletop leaning in her studio waiting for the inspiration to strike. She has no preconceived image in mind for that sail-sized bolt of cloth, but she knows it will emerge from her creative mind eventually.
She is retired now, and her studio is in her apartment so she has no trouble accessing the tools of the trade when the muses speak to her, but she still finds she has to talk herself into the painting process. Like staying fit, eating proper meals, or having a social circle, painting has to be maintained through dedicated will.
"The best time for me to paint is in the morning," she said. "I'm not a morning person, but the light is better and I tell myself 'you have to paint today; you must paint' so I stick with it even when I don't feel the urge. You have to be disciplined about it, or maybe self-motivated is a better word. I'm a great procrastinator but that's something I know I shouldn't procrastinate on. I stick to it. But it helps to have something to paint for, and that's why I love Studio 2880 because they get me painting. This 6x6 thing is next, and I hope they have other plans for me after that."
If she has any advice for painters just starting out it is to keep the process simple. "Give yourself a simple palette, just three or four colours, and that will give you a simple mindset. If you line up 10 colours, you can complicate your mind and that complicates the painting when it doesn't need to be. Learn to work with only a small number of colours at a time and it will teach you how to really focus your work."
The focus of the next Alphabet Project letter will be the letter C next week. That artist is Christina Watts.
