In the news

[Le français suit après la photo.]

The 2025 "Spring Art Expo" of the Artists Circle of the West Island (of Montréal) ended late this afternoon. This art show was presented at the Pierrefonds Cultural Centre, housed in what was originally the 1930s O'Connell House (maison O'Connell). The building was later renamed the Edgar-C.-Budge House (Maison Edgar-C.-Budge), in much the same way that the anglophone or English language heritage of Montréal has been whittled away or completely erased over the years. But that's a story for another day!
Back to the Artists' Circle, we hosted the opening night Vernissage for this exhibition on Friday March 7, during the evening.
We had guests attending from the City of Montréal, including a City Councillor for the Pierrefonds-Roxboro Borough, as well as from On Rock Community Services. The latter was because once again this year our organization was donating ten percent of all proceeds from the art show to this local community group - and collecting non-perishable goods for their food bank.
Although it was free to view the exhibition, we asked visitors to donate an item to the food bank if they could.
It was truly heartwarming tonight, when I went to pick up my two watercolour paintings, to see all the boxes of food that we'd collected.
So this post is a big Thank You to everyone who brought in food items to be donated to the food bank! And to Caroline, for all the work she puts into planning and organizing these exhibitions for the Artists Circle!

L'Expo d'art du printemps 2025, presentée par le Cercle des Artistes de l'Ouest de l'île (de Montréal), s'est terminée tard cet après-midi. Le tout s'est déroulé au Centre culturel de Pierrefonds, qui occupe l'ancienne Maison O'Connell, érigée dans les années 1930. Rebaptisée la Maison Edgar-C.-Budge, de la même façon que l'héritage anglophone de Montréal se fait éffacer ou enlever depuis des années. Mais cela, cette une histoire pour un autre moment !
De retour au Cercle des Artistes, notre Vernissage s'est tenue au cours de la soirée du 7 mars dernier.
Plusieurs invitées étaient présentes, y compris une Conseillière de la Ville de Montréal pour l'Arrondissement Pierrefonds-Roxboro ainsi qu'un membre de la direction des Services communautaires On Rock. Ce dernier était présent car - encore une fois cette année - notre organisme d'art versait dix pourcent des recettes de notre exposition à On Rock. Au cours du Vernissage et de l'Expo d'art nous avons également accepté des dons d'aliments non-périssables pour leur banque alimentaire.
La visite de l'exposition était gratuite, mais nous avons encouragé les visiteurs d'apporter des aliments s'ils en étaient capables.
Ce soir, lorsque que je suis allée receuillir mes deux aquarelles, j'étais très contente de voir tout ce que nous avons ramassé pour la banque alimentaire.
Ce message est donc un gros Merci à chaque personne qui a apporté des dons destinés a la banque alimentaire ! Et à Caroline, pour le travail qu'elle fait pour la planification et l'organisation des expositions du Cercle des Artistes !

This watercolour painting, "Pain Waves", was my entry last week for the 2025 Art Awards of the Canadian Pain Society (CPS). The CPS is a national organization of healthcare professionals and researchers who study and treat both acute and chronic pain, along with health sciences students, post-doctoral fellows, and other trainees who are learning about or researching pain. There are also a number of Patient Partners within the CPS, like myself, involved in different projects and serving on various CPS committees.

The annual Art Awards, held since 2021 with a new theme for each edition, are open not only to CPS Members and to Patient Partners but also to the public.
The theme for this year's Art Awards is "What do I do for pain?", requiring a brief essay (of up to 150 words) on how a submitted artwork replies to this question.  There's also space for up to words for a description of the techniques used in the artwork. For my description of "Pain Waves", I took the opportunity to send an additional message to viewers: "This semi-abstract watercolour painting features a limited palette of the 3 primary colours (blue, red, and yellow), reflecting the limited resources of chronic pain treatment and pain research across Canada."
For the submission essay itself, I wrote:
"What do I do for pain? For my own pain, I try to adapt! When I’m experiencing waves of CRPS pain, I try to metaphorically surf through them. My metaphorical surfboard might be any – or all – of my pain-management tools, including my art practice, being with family and friends, cuddling with my husband, cycling and other exercise, mindful meditation, singing (badly) or humming along to music, and spending time in nature.
And for others' pain I'm significantly involved in chronic pain advocacy, awareness-raising, education, research, and support, and am a Patient Partner for several groups and projects.
My #ArtDespitePain initiative, meanwhile, encourages others living with persistent pain to try creative pursuits as a brain-plasticity or neuro-plasticity tool for their pain."
This watercolour painting was created specifically as a concept piece to reflect the kinds of 'pain flares' or 'pain waves' that I experience due to CRPS, and I'm now working on a series featuring waves as representations of perseverance and resiliency in the face of pain. 

This past Friday, February 28, was International Rare Disease Day. Occurring on the last day of February each year, this event is important to me because I live with two very different rare diseases.
This year, I was pleased to mark Rare Disease Day by sharing a profile that had been published a day earlier in the "CanvasRebel" art magazine.

This feature describes my use of art as a neuroplasticity or brain-plasticity approach to managing the severe pain from one of these two rare diseases.
It also describes my #ArtDesitePain initiative, which uses my artwork to raise awareness of chronic pain - and encourages people living with pain to try creative pursuits to improve their symptoms and quality of life.

You can read this rather long feature article at: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-sandra-woods/

This Friday will be the last day of February, a sign here in Montréal that our long cold winter is coming to end. The final day of this month also marks international Rare Disease Day.
Did you know that I paint because of a rare disease?
My art practice evolved directly from two specific consequences of my first rare disease, and I've since been diagnosed with a second one; I now live with two quite different rare diseases.
In 2016, I had a healthcare career that I adored and was doing amateur nature photography & outdoor sports for fun, along with weight training for what I called my "zen relaxation".

Then in March 2016 I slipped on a patch of ice and broke my arm, and that simple fracture triggered a rare disease called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, now renamed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or CRPS.
Unable to do many of my previous for-fun activities, I soon volunteered all my spare time for chronic pain awareness and advocacy activities. I also became a Patient Partner (co-author) in pain research studies  and in projects to improve how healthcare professionals learn about pain.
Then, at the end of 2018, I had to abandon my beloved career after CRPS had resulted in a disturbing disability; a Mild Cognitive Impairment, on top of the severe chronic pain and many other symptoms of this bizarre autoimmune and neuro-inflammatory condition.
As part of my pain advocacy activities, at the end of 2020 I was reading research on the benefits of art practice for pain management - and potentially as brain-plasticity or neuroplasticity training to prevent cognitive decline.
This was the catalyst for my decision – during the pandemic – to nurture my lifelong dream of learning to paint with watercolours.
My Art Despite Pain (#ArtDesitePain) initiative soon evolved, completely intertwined with my own chronic pain snd my pain advocacy, while I continued my previous volunteer activities.

I often say that "I  paint because of pain", and that chronic pain - along with a Mild Cognitive Impairment and many other symptoms - all stem from that one rare disease named CRPS.
My second rare disease is Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD), which has nothing to do with muscles despite having 'muscular' in its name. FMD affects my arteries, causing some of them to look quite pretty in CT scans - like strings of pearls. Unfortunately having "bilateral beaded carotids" - as in my case - isn't a good thing. This rare condition can put me at heightened risk of aneurysm, spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), or stroke.
Luckily many of the 'pain-management tools' - lifestyle choices - that I use to make living with CRPS bearable are also good for the FMD; including aerobic or cardiovascular exercise (cycling, in particular!), eating mostly anti-inflammatory and plant-based foods, mindful meditation and other stress-reduction techniques (which encompasses my art practice), socializing with loved ones, and spending time in nature.
Because although it doesn't cause any obvious symptoms, my second rare disease is actually much more dangerous than the first. But it's the CRPS rather than the FMD that affects my life on a daily basis, causing severe pain, cognitive issues, unpredictable autoimmune fatigue, and problems in my right hand and arm; bone and joint issues, colour changes (of the nails and skin), skin sensitivity called allodynia, spasms, temperature changes, tremors, and more.
"Rare diseases and undiagnosed diseases may seem to affect few people, but in reality, there are more than 7000 distinct rare diseases, and at least half of them affect children.
To give an order of magnitude, the number of people affected by a rare disease in Canada is estimated to be as many as the number of people with diabetes."
So, on Friday, spare a thought for all of us living with rare diseases.

Someone recently asked how long it takes me to finish a watercolour painting, and my reply was: "I honestly can't answer that".
I know, for example, that I spent at least five hours painting this 9" x 11" impression of an apple over the past two weeks.
Before I even picked up a paintbrush, though, I spent about an hour setting up an apple in sunlight and taking reference photos, then sketching my composition onto watercolour paper.
Next, I had to consider the kinds of colours and textures that I wanted to use in this scene - so that I could choose from among my many tubes of watercolour pigments.
For the lighter area to the right of the apple, for example, I knew that I wanted to create an impression of warm candlelight.
To evoke that particular glow, I chose a pigment called Bronzite Genuine, made of an extremely fine-milled mineral of the same name. Bronzite is a semi-precious stone, in a brown hue that often carries a hint of warm orange, known to shimmer; the Bronzite watercolour pigment also shimmers beautifully on the cotton paper.

Once I'd decided on my pigment colour for the candlelit area, I had to consider which colour would work as a dark for the more shadowed side of the fruit. The obvious choice was a blue, as a complementary colour to the slightly orange cast of the Bronzite... but which blue?
At this point, I created several colour-mix swatches to test various blues against - and with - the Bronzite.
These colour-mix swatches are combinations of pigments, in both their wet and dry forms, on a scrap of cotton paper to see how they not only side-by-side but also combined - painted one over the other as glazes, or mixed together as a liquid.
Once I'd selected a blue, I then tried several options for the much darker surface of the table - painting additional colour-mix swatches. Doing all this, simply to choose the pigments I'd use, took at least two hours.
That's three hours, without even touching the actual painting yet!
Beyond that, I don't know how much time I spent actually painting this still life because I tend to lose track of time when I have a paintbrush in my hand.
If my husband is out, I'll often forget to eat, not realizing that it's hours past lunchtime or dinnertime until I start getting a headache or my rumbling tummy disturbs me.
This is what researchers refer to as the "flow state" or "Flow Theory"; when a person becomes so wrapped up in a challenging but pleasant activity that they completely lose track of time.
Flow Theory is also part of what helps me manage my chronic pain from a rare disease named CRPS. When my brain is so engaged with painting, it is in some ways distracted from the pain signals - which means that I feel slightly less pain.
The pain is still there, but it's somehow pushed more into the background of my mind - of my brain.

Given that I began learning to paint in 2021 as a way to help manage both my chronic pain and my Mild Cognitive Impairment - both resulting from CRPS - losing track of time is exactly what I want!
Back to this still life of an apple, I know that I spent at least five hours painting it only because my husband happened to go out - once for two hours and once for three - just after I'd picked up my paintbrushes. And I was keeping track of time more closely, for a virtual meeting, when I was selecting the colours.
So beyond the three hours of preparation and at least five hours of painting, I have no idea how much time I spent painting this still life. And that's just fine with me!

It's Super Bowl Sunday, which means that it's also "Superb Owl" day!
This alternate annual trend began after reports surfaced several years ago that typing errors in advance of the big game had led to a spike in online searches for the phrase "superb owl" rather than the intended "Super Bowl".

So it's the perfect occasion to share a few of my "Superb Owl" sketches, in watercolour!

"The term didn't gain widespread usage until it was picked up by Stephen Colbert for a segment of "The Colbert Report" in 2014. It was also used as a category of "Jeopardy" in 2019, according to Know Your Meme. Over time, people began differentiating between Superb Owl posts and Super Bowl posts by using the hashtag #SuperbOwl, capitalizing the "O" in the tag."

And "the popularity of the meme has helped drive people hoping to learn more about the birds to conservation organizations... hosting events such as this weekend's Superb Owl Saturday. The event isn't being held on Sunday to avoid ruffling the feathers of any owl-loving football fans".

So if you're not an (American) football fan, check for #SuperbOwls on social media tonight!

A new online exhibition and fundraising auction opens tomorrow, supporting a California arts organization after the devastating wildfires in that area.
The Laguna Plein Air Painters Association's "LPAPA Strong Painted Postcards" exhibition opens on at 1300 ET on Monday February 3, 2025 (1000 PT).
I'll be one of the participating international artists in this American art show, for which we all submitted one 5" x 7" postcard-sized painting. Each of these small works will be auctioned off from a starting bid of $50 USD, increasing in increments of $10 USD.
Several Signature-level artists are involved, along with many other well-known painters, so this is a good opportunity to purchase a small piece by a world-class artist. The exhibition organizers in California asked each participating artist to submit a selfie with their painting, to show the size of these 5" x 7" artworks, so I opted to take mine outside and share some snow!

There's no need to wait until tomorrow, though, to view this fabulous art show. The exhibition catalogue, set up as a beautiful online flip-book, is already available for viewing; artists are listed alphabetically by last name, so of course mine is towards the end of the catalogue.
Showing four paintings per page, the flip-book is a lovely tribute to the range of styles, subjects, and mediums included in this exhibition. If a particular painting interests you, click on the "Go to auction" button which will take you directly to that work in the auction. You can then click on the heart icon, to bookmark that painting. This is not a bid, nor an intention to bid, it's simply a way to keep track of which paintings you liked best and to find them easily.
My postcard-sized watercolour painting, by the way, is named "Fire Haze & Hope" in honour of forest fire victims everywhere.

This past week was "Bird Art Week" over on Instagram, hosted by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (@cornellbirds). Each morning they posted a "prompt" or theme for that day, with a specific hashtag, then bird-lovers around the world could post their avian art using that tag.
As I enjoy painting local birds and wildlife, I participated in each day of this art challenge.
Sunday started with #SketchThatBird, Monday we moved on to #MoonlitMigrators, Tuesday's happening was #HillariousAsFlock, Wednesday arrived with #AquaticAvians, Thursday saw #SpectacularSongs, Friday pulled #PollenOnTheWing, and Saturday unrolled with #UrbanBirds.
It was fun to look back at some of the bird sketches and paintings that I've created, and a reminder that I should think about doing more of them now that the weather has gotten quite cold. I've noticed that many of the birds tend to stay on our birdfeeders for longer periods during colder weather, in particular the beautiful Northern cardinals and the Downy and Hairy woodpeckers.
Here are a few of the images I shared as part of Bird Art Week - enjoy!

Some of these were quick watercolour sketches, other pencil sketches, ad a few were studio paintings. Which do you prefer? 

This weekend, I began reading another novel grounded in art history, after finishing "Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo" by Stephanie Storey and the analysis "Leonardo Da Vinci: Under the Skin" by brothers Michael Farthing and Stephen Farthing.
This new book was a Christmas gift from an old friend, and it's absolutely brilliant. It's the original French version of a modern tale by art historian Thomas Schlesser, a professor at the École Polytechnique in Paris who also taught art history for several years at the École du Louvre.
The English version should be released this autumn, so keep an eye out for it if you're an art lover or enjoy art history.

The French title is "Les Yeux de Mona", which roughly translates to 'Mona's Eyes' - although the publisher may select a different title for the English edition.
In addition to a lovely story concept, there's a practical aspect to this novel as well; its dust jacket unfolds to reveal a photo-montage of the artworks discussed in the novel, allowing the reader to view each piece as it's being discussed by the protagonists.
If you're interested in this novel, here's a summary from the publisher: 

"Fifty-two weeks: That's the time Mona has left to discover all the beauty of the world.
This is the time that her grandfather, a learned and whimsical man, took to introduce her, every Wednesday after school, to a work of art, before she lost, perhaps forever, the use of her eyes.
Together, they will travel through the Louvre, Orsay and Beaubourg...
Borrowing the views of Botticelli, Vermeer, Goya, Courbet, Claudel, Kahlo or Basquiat, Mona discovers the power of art...
Les Yeux de Mona has a fabulous destiny: Translated in more than twenty countries even before its publication in France [it] is an international phenomenon."

If you're looking for something to do later this week, near the western tip of Montréal Island, why not stop by the opening night Vernissage for the "Entre-Nous 2025" art show at the Maison Trestler (Trestler House)?
This national historic site in the Old Dorion area is a stunning field-stone building, more than 225 years old, with gallery and concert spaces as well as a local history museum.

Their annual "Entre-Nous" exhibition features local artists, each displaying only one selected work, curated by staff to show among the historic décor and period pieces.
It's always an honour to see my paintings on the wall in such a gorgeous setting, with windows overlooking the natural beauty of the lake, so I'm pleased that one of my watercolours was included in "Entre-Nous 2025".
The Vernissage will be from 1700 to 1900 on Thursday, January 16, at La Maison Trestler; 85 chemin de la Commune, Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec J7V 2C3.
Update 16.01.2025: Although I'd planned to participate in the Vernissage this evening, something has come up with my car and I won't be able to make it. I am, however, looking forward to viewing this new exhibition next week!