Peggy smith saint john artist: home of art mart

Since some of you are going through photos during Covid I decided to go through watercolors that I wouldn’t matt for one reason or another. So! Two things:... I will entertain bids on my Facebook messenger! You can chop a section of your DUD to frame or use as a card, Draw or paint on the back, or whatever. Some will not be signed. (I may not take the highest bid!) I wanted to be able to donate to the relief that MAF is carrying out in Honduras and Nicaragua , etc After two hurricanes in a row devastated them.. We had a lady pilot here, the late Gina Jordan, who flew out to where MAF pilots needed checking out to fly , in Africa mainly. We were familiar with the work it does. MAF cooperates with other missions on a regular basis. They have use of a Samaritan ‘s purse helicopter Plus a couple of small planes right now, Food and supplies in to the country People out. I just received their newsletter asking for donations.. I woke up with this idea this morning. I have quite a few DUDS, Here are three! Don’t be afraid to offer me too little! I just make you come good for it But you will have to wear a mask if you come for it!!! CRAZY? Yeah!!

Nostalgia time again this morning... I have again moved into the past!!! The pen drawing mother and child.. I went up the track to Irene Guerette ... and she to me many times a day.. our lives were closely entwined ! This was her firstborn, Lisa.. They are all up in the French part of our nation Lisa and Melanie both happy mothers! This watercolor of my second great-grandson hangs in my bedroom, though he will be nine on his next birthday ! I have not laid eyes on them since 2017! Another faraway person is Gary Karr, the world’s greatest double bass player; last I heard he was in BC. I can’t play his ( autographed) LPs anymore!! The medium is encaustic over a sculpture medium. I was trying to escape my academic training. Sometimes , as I would be heading out the door I would look back and see the brushes in the can of varsol still on the wood stove ! My neighbor said I was on speed dial at the fire department...

The need to draw and paint has always been so strong .. Times were tough... In the drawing here of son number one you see it in his eyes. A lot of roaming to look at life,... A lot of seeking and responding to it. In Markhamville I did many a sketch with conte pencil . At the Atlantic Exhibition in Saint John I painted many booths , Every kind of carnival music going on at once. Workers in the next booth posed , unbeknownst to me till afterward. People love to be taken seriously,and I suppose they were not used to all the attention!!

In the 70’s and 80’s I sketched a lot away from the studio. Especially in 1973, when a lot of things were being torn down . Near us was the Annex, part of the provincial hospital, where there was a farm. It is now completely built up into town housing. Folk living there now likely never tobogganned down there.... From Sand Cove on a fine winter’s day we got plenty of exercise! This would have been drawn from just below Manawagonish Road,on a side street. I also did a large oil there. Nowadays oils like this study of tulips are what I paint. The watercolor dated back to my days of hiding bibles in my suitcases along with the paints to bring to beleaguered Cuban pastors who had no acces to anything, let alone bibles.

Big rush! Always! This morning back into the sketch book to see the sweet #4 child. Also, the little oil , the sandy beach, I had on before, but I got a nice frame on it now!!... Also a watercolor done outside on the North Atlantic in winter. Brisk wind anyway as we speed over the water, but I remember how strong that gale was. I had nothing to do during the days but paint and explore. I went free on a freighter to see my painter son in Europe. I spent many years at the Seaman’s Mission putting calls through to home for sailors, this is how I got to sail on this Norwegian Freighter that came into Saint John in those days. I stayed two hours later to enable a call to get through to India, and was asking them to show me on the map about how they got home; and mentioned that I had a son I didn’t expect to see again as we are both artists. They spoke to their ship ,I got a passport, and , voila! See more

Resuming after a hiatus!!! SALUTE TO SYMPHONY NEW BRUNSWICK Symphony New Brunswick is mounting a fundraiser For $70,000 to celebrate 70 years of its existence.... ( it will be matched by a donor!) What can I do, I wondered!! Celebrate , for sure, the wonderful musicians and the work behind the scenes!! I am presenting the oil of Dale Caines, even though I had it on before! French Horn ,always the musician, as well as nurse ( on the burn unit). The little pen sketch of Eric , gleaning from Toronto’s Moshe Hammer when he soloed here with the symphony . And a small watercolor of a violinist during one of the many rehearsals I attended. I have been privy to the heart of the symphony Through the good times The troubled times But never do these people drop their discipline and high standards.

I am heartened by all the encouragement and support I have received since I began these posts. Susanna ,Regi , Teresa, Bonnie, Barbara,Andrea, to name just a few, for ( faithfully) sharing . And all the views and comments!! Yesterday was nine eleven ; I did nothing..... what I did touch turned the opposite to accomplishment!! Yes, there are more images to post, I have to pick up steam!!!!! This is one currently in process See more

These are all grownups now!! When I was in Gent, Belgium, I used to take the laundry and bicycle across the canal to the machines. While the ladies folded their clothes and exchanged the news I went and sketched nearby.... I am not fluent in whatever language they communicated. Ordinary homes , not the beautiful cathedrals, sorry!! See more

We go back to before watercolor music for the Messiah singer, 1990. I loved working in pastel and conte, both stick and conte pencil! I switched to the watercolor when I went the first time to Cuba,... Pastels smudge, and would be difficult to transport back, and oil was out of the question. Watercolor became my favorite for music rehearsals afterwards. The oil is one of the very few Rock paintings I have left, I did them between 1973, when I was upset over all the old Saint John buildings being demolished, and 1979, when I had become a new Christian, quite a turnabout in my life!! That was when a lot of portraits happened. The Rock paintings, done to music with a tiny polished rock as inspiration rendered on a large canvas, using colors new to me, happened. I learned a lot about movement,design ,all that....

Fog again makes the light dim for photographing! Since the large oil of Andrew Millar was done ,so much has changed! He was Andy then, and had his Australian Sheep dog with Him. It was February,and I had a Border Lab who had zero training.The two of them trampled all the snow while I was trying to see all of him, the big double bass in the not so good light in the not large enough living room! If you turn the Bass even a little I can make a mess of the drawing!!... Now he has a new double bass ,hairdo and other important changes! Me too! Sonja at the student music camp at St.Martins with her students was so patient and pleasant with her students.It was a pleasure to be allowed amongst them! I put the dry watercolor of the quartet in because it was their first concert at the ABEC, now SJAC, though the paper I had wasn’t conducive to watercolor. See more