Perseverance

The title of this painting is "Patience" and it sums up my attitude towards my painting experience.

I have been on a journey of learning and discovery for 26 years now. It all started with classes in drawing, life drawing, graphic design, illustration and layout, black and white photography and development, oil painting, pastel painting, watercolour painting, intaglio and relief printmaking and various mixed media techniques and workshops.

Along the way I've been involved with many art organizations, co-op art galleries, outdoor and indoor art shows and a few studio tours.  My paintings have been shown in many small art galleries and gift shops in Ottawa and other towns and cities in Eastern Ontario.

Recently I have had the good fortune to be asked by the owner of a major fine art gallery here in Ottawa, Koyman Galleries, to show my work.  I am now a 'gallery artist' and have a permanent display space in this beautiful venue.  My challenge now is to create more artwork in 'my style' on larger canvases. Here's hoping 'Joe Public' will like what he sees enough to buy my work.

In general, I think creative people have to build a hard shell against negativity for what they do and why they do it. Pursuing a subject for the simple love of learning and enjoyment of the process is what is important to me and I want to keep that freshness of attitude in my mind going forward in this new direction.

Heather Assaf
Koyman Galleries

A New Direction

I have been working away for many months on combining collage pieces that I am creating with random marks and lines with even more intuitive painting done with scrapers, pouring, spraying and finger painting.

The resulting works are, to me, very expressive and loose.  These are done from the heart and both fun and scary at the same time.

Exhibiting them will be a whole other thing too as they are quite different from my creations of the last few years.

I am happiest when learning new things and stretching myself in new directions and that is the main reason why I paint in the first place.

It's the putting them out there in the open for other people to judge that is the part of this art-making that I am not particularly fond of.

I know most artists share this feeling - that's just the way the cookie crumbles!

New Homes

This summer has seen the artworks above all go to new homes which is a very happy and validating experience for me.

My plan is now to concentrate on creating larger pieces for another solo show, hopefully, in a year or so. I will continue to exhibit in one gallery, one boutique gallery and a few group shows.

I'm feeling the need for time to reflect, daydream and to learn some more painting methods. Working larger will also be a challenge, mostly because of my relatively small workspace, but, I am very thankful for my 'room of my own' - my little 'studio'.