Hi, I’m Piri, and I’ve had a pencil or brush in my hand since childhood.
I am 95% self-taught, altho my home in Montreal was steeped in international art and love of nature. My dad chaired McGill University’s Art History Department, his preferred classes being ‘Oriental’ Art ( as Asian studies were referred to at the time ) and Modern Architecture. My mother curated art, sculpture and international folk craft shows in Stewart Hall Art Gallery of the City of Pointe Claire. As a family we spent summers in an old house in rural New England reveling in the natural world of surrounding fields and forests.
I spent college years at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, with a year of French studies in Rouen, France. Also detouring from formal education for a valuable year in the School of Hitchhiking Around Europe… Yes - we did that back then! Hippie-caving in Greece, and Senegalese dance classes in Paris’s Rive Gauche… added some cultural breadth,and woke up my love of dance! In more recent decades I’ve gotten to travel in Asia with many wonderful friends. I truly value travel experiences, not least for the inspiration each culture’s art brings to beautifying life.
Nature has designed the beauty around us. What makes nature’s patterns so alive? The subtle asymmetries that take it from static to flow! And that organic flow has always been my Muse.
My colored pencil renders the detail of plant design… in tree, flower, leaf, and fruit.
My batiks are slow-made, the molten wax brushwork as resist to the dye layers. The hot wax dictates speed of flow, whether rendering leaf forms or calligraphing wise words of fine minds. My fabrics are pure silks, wools, and silk/wool blends in a range of weights and weaves. You can wear this art as the silken touch or light woolen warmth, carry the beauty with you.
In portraiture I aim to capture the the very essential beauty of that person, the eyes of course conveying so much of what that person has to say about life.
My Chinese brushwork is a nascent tutored skill helping me to enrich natural flow in my pieces.
I hope you find some beauty in my work that you’d like to bring into your own world.
Oh… and as my art is truly handmade… there’s no extra charge for imperfections. ; )
Regards,
Piri