Thinking about taking the leap into becoming a full-time artist? Erin Loree did just that and through a crazy twist of fate, landed in Kim Dorland’s old studio in Toronto. Erin talks about how she approaches her large paintings, color palette and materials. From artist residencies in Peru, Plant Medicine, and observing the inner and outer world around her, she shares great insight into how she creates her beautiful work. 

Erin is from Gananoque, Ontario. She completed her BFA at OCAD University in 2012 and received a Certificate of Advanced Visual Studies from OCAD’s Florence Program. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including Toronto, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, and the UK, with a recent museum solo exhibition at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound, Ontario. She has work in a number of collections including Toronto Dominion Bank, Holt Renfrew, and Imago Mundi. Loree was awarded the Robert Pope Artist Residency at NSCAD University in Halifax, and has participated in residencies at Artscape Youngplace in Toronto, and Sachaqa Centro de Arte in the Peruvian Amazon Jungle. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 2012 Drawing and Painting Medal, and Nora E. Vaughan Award from OCAD University, as well as an Ontario Arts Council grant. Loree’s work has been featured in YNGSPC.ca, MOMUS.ca, CBC Arts, the Toronto Star, Beautiful Decay, Booooooom, and Huffington Post. She is represented by Peter Robertson Gallery in Edmonton.

 

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE:

1. Taking the leap to become a full-time artist.
2. How the universe has your back-Kim Dorland’s support and studio
3. Leaning into a risk that feels right
4. Material being as important in the image
5. Advice on making large paintings and the tools she created to make them. 
6. Her meditation practice, the truth of impermanence, and how her work reflects that. 
7. “The form follows color for me” 
8. Color to create tension and to create light
9. “Painting monogamist” 
10. Artist residency in Peru and Plant Medicine
11. The painting process takes faith and perseverance and the process reveals the work

LINKS:

DAN SULLIVAN-teacher at OCAD-“TRUST YOURSELF”

Nicole Collins-OCAD- the value in making mistakes and the value in the process of making. Open to receptive while making. Progress is not linear, snakes and ladders, sometimes you have to slide down to find a ladder. 

Trina Brammah- “sachaqa art center”

Peruvian Rainforest, founded Work with natural pigments

https://trinabrammah.wixsite.com/visionaryart

 

Ellen (norweagina)Work with natural pigments

@primusprimus

 

Erinloree.com

Insta erin_loree

Peter Robert

 

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