Osoyoos artist Sharon Leonard shows one of her watercolours. The background colours are done by pouring paint in patterns across the paper. Leonard is opening a show on Saturday at Jojo’s Cafe’s Art and Music night. (Richard McGuire photo)
Osoyoos artist Sharon Leonard has never been to Africa, but eight pastels of African animals, birds and people will be at the core of her exhibition opening at Jojo’s Café this Saturday.
Leonard is the featured artist at the popular café’s Art and Music Night, which gets underway at 7 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month. For music, it will be an open mic.
While Leonard dreams she may some day visit Africa, the pastels are based on photographs taken by Deb McCallum of Lakeside Travel.
“She took some beautiful photographs when she took her group to Africa,” said Leonard. “I asked her if she would mind if I painted a few of them and she was nice enough to let me make copies.”
Leonard is better known for her work with watercolours, often with colourful backgrounds made by pouring paint onto the paper and then adding details overtop.
But she especially likes working with pastels when animals or people are the subjects.
“People don’t realize how versatile they are, and how vibrant they can be,” she said, adding that they don’t fade and will last forever if they aren’t rubbed or brushed.
She usually works from her own photos.
“I find it easier,” said Leonard. “Trying to paint on site is hard. I do like to paint from the original subject on site, but it’s difficult because light changes, so usually I do a combination with photos.”
In addition to the African pastels, Leonard is also showing some other favourites in pastels and watercolours. Unlike some local artists, she’s less enthusiastic about acrylics, but sometimes starts a painting in acrylic, which dries faster, and then paints over it in oils, which she said feel richer.
Leonard, 75, said she’s been drawing since she was a child growing up in Manitoba.
She chuckles as she tells how at age 13 she applied to be a commercial artist.
“I filled out the form and sent some drawings in and I got accepted,” she said. “They obviously didn’t know how old I was.”
She didn’t follow through, and in hindsight she realizes that commercial art wouldn’t have been a good fit for her.
“It’s a little bit too confining,” she said. “You’d have to paint what they told you to paint.”
At 16, she got her first set of oils and she later took some painting courses.
When she got married and had children, she found she couldn’t paint when her children were around.
“If I started painting, the house can burn down around me, and I wouldn’t even know it,” Leonard said.
It wasn’t until she retired from a career in social work in Chilliwack and moved to Osoyoos 19 years ago that she really immersed herself in painting again.
Leonard has long been active in the Osoyoos arts scene.
She is currently secretary with Artists on Main.
In 2011, she and former Osoyoos artist Katie Foster organized Art in the Garden, a summer event in which artists showed their work in gardens of the region. That event has continued in different forms, most recently being held at the Desert Centre. This year it will be held at different downtown venues and will be called Art About Town.
She’s a director on the Osoyoos and District Arts Council and is a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.
In the past, she served as curator at the Osoyoos Art Gallery. She painted the Piano in the Park with help from Sherry Bridden. She teaches art classes in her home studio. And she volunteers teaching art to residents at Country Squire each week.
Leonard said when people see her show at Jojo’s, she wants them to appreciate both the versatility of the pastels and her affinity for animals.
“I try to approach animals as almost people, with feelings,” she said. “I often look at an animal and feel they’re judging me and trying to figure out who I am. I think they’re far more intelligent than we give them credit for.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
