Lynn Zanatta convinced her father, Joe, to sit for a portrait Friday morning. He was the first of 50 people artist Sarah Fougere, nee Holtom, was to paint in 15 days.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 nuts,鈥� said 79-year-old Joe, of being painted.
Asked why he was at to get his portrait done he pointed his finger at Lynn.
Lynn鈥檚 daughters saw Fougere paint Lynn鈥檚 partner, former mayor Sam Sullivan, last year and booked a portrait session for themselves and their mom for mother鈥檚 day. When Lynn saw on Facebook that Fougere was back in town, she booked a session for her father.
鈥淚 love Sarah鈥檚 work,鈥� Lynn said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just so free and happy.鈥�
Fougere, who graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2004, wanted to be a fashion designer when she was young, so she was always drawing people as a kid and then as a drawing major in art school.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 paint in a traditional way where you paint in layers and you work from darkest to lightest,鈥� Fougere said. 鈥淚鈥檓 painting with the exact colour that I see and I put it where I see it and then I maybe blend a bit, but I almost use my brush, I use a smaller paint brush, so it鈥檚 almost like a pencil crayon.鈥�
Her portraits are vibrant, somewhat loose and not always perfectly proportioned.
Her landscapes sold like hotcakes at The Cheaper Show in 2011 so she showed the event鈥檚 founder and creative director, Graeme Berglund, her book of portraits and pitched the idea of painting 50 in 15 days at his Black & Yellow gallery.
鈥淚鈥檓 in it for the long haul. I feel like I鈥檓 almost like an athlete鈥� It鈥檚 a good workout for my art muscles,鈥� Fougere said, adding, 鈥淎nd [painting from life is] a tradition that鈥檚 kind of maybe being lost a bit with all the new technologies.鈥�
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Fougere painted 100 portraits of Calgary artists in 90 days in 2006 and the portraits were added to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary鈥檚 permanent collection.
With the sale of her portraits, Fougere bought her house in Saskatchewan for $5,500 and opened a gallery in Canora called The National Gallery of Saskatchewan.
鈥淢y paintings are more exciting to look at when they鈥檙e painted from life,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 go make a coffee and sit back down because it鈥檚 all in one moment and because either the weather鈥檚 going to change or the lighting or the person鈥檚 going to get tired of sitting鈥� You really have to make those brush strokes count.鈥�
She鈥檚 embraced the performance aspect of having someone sit for a portrait through these sessions and the TV show she created and stars in on Cable Access 7 in Saskatchewan called The Painting from Life with Sarah Holtom Show!!, which features her painting a landscape from start to finish within an hour.
One wall at the gallery space Fougere occupied Friday was decked with a dozen landscapes mostly of 麻豆传媒映画and, except for one portrait, the other walls were decked with blank, one-foot square, wooden panels with red dots beneath most of them. She鈥檚 since added 10 more sittings and the portraits will be shown at a closing reception at 602 East Hastings St., Sept. 7.
Fougere doesn鈥檛 know why strangers, quite a few couples, are keen to have their portraits painted. But she suspects they like having art that portrays them at a particular time and place.
Fougere is selling the aforementioned landscapes in an online silent auction, with bidding starting at $500.
As for Joe, she says he loved his portrait. 鈥淗e was like, 鈥榊ou said it was going to be an abstract,鈥欌�� Fougere said. 鈥溾�楾hat is a real painting.鈥欌��
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