It’s a swirly-whirly world and we are lucky to be living in it with Sharon Priseman.
Realistic abstract is how the Prince George creative describes her latest adventures in art.
Guided by her mom from a young age, Priseman was deep into realism when she first started painting, but eventually she discovered that a green stripey zebra, orange clouds and fantastical people holding an entire universe in their hands might be worth exploring, too.
“I can’t remember ever not wanting to do art even when I was a little kid and then, of course, as an adult I didn’t have a lot of time when I had my son who he was in all kinds of sport and I was working full time for 40-some years so I would maybe paint two paintings a year and then when I retired I joined the Artists’ Coop – I love the Artists’ Coop.”
Priseman retired from being a secretary at the School District office a few years back and she’s been in Prince George since ’76.
After delving into realism for years something shifted.
“I got kind of bored,” Priseman said.
“I was doing landscapes and then I always had to have an animal in my work and then it was people and then I just wanted to let loose a little bit.”
A recent piece is the result of letting loose. It was inspired by the first COVID restrictions that kept us all in our houses.
“Do you remember when people were making music on their balconies?” Priseman asked, pointing at the painting depicting a village scene.
“These three people were inspired by musicians that were at Books & Co. so people might even recognize them. I’ve also got little references like the heart in the window and the fact that there is nobody on the streets. My husband Al’s family all live in England and I love the Mediterranean and we try to go to Europe every couple of years and I think that’s influenced a lot of my painting because I do a lot of cobblestones and rock. I like the bright colours and it’s happy to me. I call it realistic abstract because it’s kind of abstract but you can still tell what it is. In my mind that’s what I call it. A lot of times I will do one of those and then a realistic one just because I get writer’s block except it’s painter’s block.”
If Priseman gets stuck on one piece she quickly moves on to the next.
“Because it’s totally different and it’s good to focus on something else but I have way more fun with the abstract.”
Priseman said that while some artists will make a plan before they put paint to canvas she just starts.
“I know what I want to do but I don’t plan it out or draw it out,” she explained.
“I just can’t do it that way. I often thought I would save myself a lot of work if I did the composition and planned it all out and when I have done it that way in the past I end up going off track anyways so I just wing it every time. Working that way I have to redo a lot of stuff to get it how I want it. I will go to bed and think I did a really good job and I get up in the morning and it’s ‘what was I thinking?’ Then I have to redo it all.”
Most of her work is in oil or acrylic but she has also done some water-colour pieces as well.
Priseman explores her creativity in other ways, too. When she wanted a pond on her property just outside of Prince George she created one of her own design.
It’s show and tell time and as we make our way toward the pond for a closer look, the first step onto the lawn results in alarming the little frog to the right of us. We walk carefully, mindful of the little creatures lurking in the lawn.
“Isn’t it neat?” Priseman said as we approach the pond.
“I did everything myself except the bridge. Al made the bridge.”
The pond is of modest size and shallow. It’s earthy and interesting in that it has rocks in it with cattails, wildflowers and hollyhocks surrounding it and with that plantlife comes more frogs and a plethora of dragonflies in brilliant turquoise flitting about, quickly gobbling up the mosquitoes in the area as all good dragonflies do. A great feature of this waterscape is the bridge that arches over the top end of the pond to offer easy access to the far side of the property.
“It took about a month to do the pond because I had to dig it out and then collect the rocks,” Priseman said.
It’s a peaceful setting and might always be a work in progress.
“I like that I can come out here and just putter away,” Priseman smiled.
