Valigrl

                                       Valigrl

                                 Val Roy

                                         (613) 316-6004

                                     valley9@hotmail.com

Artist Statement

Resonating energy. What sets your soul on fire? Excites you? Absorbs you? Makes you smile form the inside? I love the ocean. I never tire of it. It begins with the salty sea smell. The sun’s warmth, sandy toes. I feel both energized and relaxed. Watching the strength of the waves as they rhythmically crash to shore. The colors –teals, blues, aquas. Or a night of live music…watching the energy build, the passion of the artists. The energy, the atmosphere, the soul-wrenching passion. Both of these places allow me to escape the everyday world, ponder the universe, and be still enough to listen to the depth of my soul.

I paint to capture the energy of things that inspire me, my passions, and vitality for life, and to share this with others. I want to allow my soul to speak. It conveys my inner truth and enthusiasm for life!

I love color. I paint in fluid, solid and open acrylics. The combination of their properties allows me to work both spontaneously, and to achieve depth in my work. I love to pour fluid acrylic paint and watch it flow. For me, process is as important as the final piece. This energetic paint handling helps to convey and maintain my passion for the subject and keep my work fresh and dynamic. For these same reasons, I love plein-air painting and sketching musicians- capturing the lines, angles, colors, and the energy I feel. I like to sketch on a textured surface with chalk or charcoal. I enjoy a sense of movement and try to make my painting dance right off the canvas. I also love texture, and use modeling paste, string gel, and a palette knife, often scoring, scraping and combing the surface to achieve my desired effects. I strive for depth both in my surface textures and the meaning behind my work.   For this reason, I frequently work in layers and prefer a gestural, semi-abstract approach. I also seek a certain degree of obscurity or ambiguity in my work. This allows the viewer to interact with the painting, stimulates their imagination, and leaves room for them to bring their own experiences and feelings to the painting. Maybe even make the viewer contemplate: what energizes and captivates me? Makes my senses tingle? Makes me feel alive?

Biography

My creative pursuits are continually evolving. My ongoing interest in the arts resulted in my career path change to teaching high school Visual Arts. I have experimented in a variety of mediums related to painting. My initial works in watercolors evolved into an interest in mixed media due to my love of texture. I currently work in both heavy body and fluid acrylics. Another ongoing passion is making jewelery. I have also become quite interested in incorporating wirework into my jewelery.

Associations

Ottawa Art Association (OAA), 2009 - present

Nepean Fine Arts League (NFAL), 2007 - present

Ottawa Mixed Media Artists (OMMA), 2005 - present

Workshops

Plein Air Painting Workshop, Judith Greeenleaf,                           San Jose Los Cabos, Mexico, March, 2010

Plein Air Painting Workshop, Jacqueline Baldini,             Monhegan Island, Maine, August, 2009

Mixed Media Workshop, Gerald Brommer,                      Springmaid, South Carolina, March, 2009

Masters Watermedia Workshop, Mary Todd-Beam,            Arrowmont, Tennessee, July, 2008

Art Clay Certification, beadFX,                                                   Toronto, February, 2008