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Small Expressions Art Show: Donna Jean expressing herself

“I just decided I would do something. I didn’t even know what I was going to do (at the time).
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Artist Donna Jean gets into the Spring mood with her paintings, entered in the CACSP’s Small Expressions show.

While during her visit  to the Tulista Gallery’s Small Expressions Art Show, North Saanich artist Donna Jean just couldn’t put the brush down.

The show places a few different artists into the Community Arts Centre at Tulista Gallery in Sidney each week. The Small Expressions show forces artists to think small, which means they can enter work no bigger than 12 inches by 12 inches.

When visited by the PNR, Jean was busy painting while talking to other gallery visitors.

“I just decided I would do something,” she said. “I didn’t even know what I was going to do (at the time).

“I just started out with pale colours, no specific plan as to where I was going to go, I just kind of let it happen and then a man appeared in the painting …” laughed the artist who works with acrylic paint.

Jean has two paintings left in the show, both floral subject matter, which she typically paints.

“I do classes in florals and I always teach them to do them on 12 by 12, because we try to do five-and-a-half a day,” she said, adding her instruction helps people to not think about what they’re doing but to paint quickly and loosely.

“And a lot of these people are very precise painters and so they want to loosen up and this is a way to learn how to do that.”

Jean got into art nine years ago, beginning her work by copying photos on canvas. She said that after a while, she wanted to branch out and become more impressionistic or abstract.

“I couldn’t do it on my own so I took some workshops and I’ve been loving it ever since,” she said.

So what does Jean love so much about it?

“Well when you get one that really works, it’s so exciting.”

The Small Expressions Art Show will continue until March 30.

The show runs Tuesday to Sunday at the Tulista Gallery, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.