Watercolour Artist Sam l. Boehner uses the medium to help work through trauma. 'Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.'-Thomas Merton
My Life in Watercolour
My Watercolour Journey
Watercolour saved my life
Watercolour saved my life
In 2007, as a way to heal I took a class with Leslie Redhead. After 8 months, I was ready to give up.
Leslie, wise one that she is, began mentoring me, encouraging me. It was shortly after that a friend Cathy loaned me Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and I learned the 10,000 hour concept. And I was off.
The process was and is for me extremel
In 2007, as a way to heal I took a class with Leslie Redhead. After 8 months, I was ready to give up.
Leslie, wise one that she is, began mentoring me, encouraging me. It was shortly after that a friend Cathy loaned me Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and I learned the 10,000 hour concept. And I was off.
The process was and is for me extremely healing. I was able to do this, me? I was becoming an artist. It was and remains one of a very few things in which I can become lost, in a good way.
In 2010 I entered my first show, I was so thrilled to get in, and it gave me the confidence I needed to enter more shows.
In 2015, I put together 42 pieces of work and had my debut Solo Exhibition, In Search of Dreams. Then, life happens, and dreams get put on the back burner.
In 2018, I slowly started again. Making time to paint had to be on my priority list again, for no one else, but me. Just to take care of myself. This may sound selfish, however, for me it is easy to fall back into old habits, if I do not take care of myself, darkness can creep back into my life if I allow it. So, for today, I paint...and I paint light.
Watercolour saved my life
Watercolour saved my life
Watercolour saved my life
The smiles you see in the images above were not always there. In early 2007, a series of events while at my previous employ led me down a dark path. Eventually, I would turn away from all the things I knew as my reality. A career in Fisheries Management, a wonderful loving husband, a beautiful home. Nothing mattered to me and I began
The smiles you see in the images above were not always there. In early 2007, a series of events while at my previous employ led me down a dark path. Eventually, I would turn away from all the things I knew as my reality. A career in Fisheries Management, a wonderful loving husband, a beautiful home. Nothing mattered to me and I began to spiral downward and isolate. All of what I should have received as blessings, and dreams come true, became overwhelming and my nightmare.
My introduction to watercolour came at a time in my life when I was at my lowest point. Without it, I fear what may have unfolded.
Today, I am thankful for all that has come to pass. All of the darkness, that I wallowed in for too long, has helped me see the light that exists in my everyday experience, good or bad, I now try and see the silver lining in everything.
When I paint in watercolour, I am swept away. I liken the medium to a babbling brook or a raging river. Let go, be loose, and flow with it, or fight it and struggle the whole way.
Sharing Big News
Sharing Big News
Sharing Big News
The year is 2020, and it has been almost 5 years since last I brushed pigment on a canvas. Life gets in the way sometimes, you know? And, without getting into details, and in my view, life unfolds as it should. Today, I am thankful for each and every blessing in my life.
So far this year, I have had three paintings completed and all h
The year is 2020, and it has been almost 5 years since last I brushed pigment on a canvas. Life gets in the way sometimes, you know? And, without getting into details, and in my view, life unfolds as it should. Today, I am thankful for each and every blessing in my life.
So far this year, I have had three paintings completed and all have been exhibited in international shows; one in Mexico and one in Italy, and one in California.
I look forward to this fresh start along my journey and I am so filled with gratitude for the blessings thus far.
Affiliations
Sharing Big News
Sharing Big News
2012 Elected Member of CSPWC, Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour
2015 Elected Associate Member FCA, Federation of Canadian Artists
2012 Elected Member of CSPWC, Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour
2015 Elected Associate Member FCA, Federation of Canadian Artists