My connection to the Haliburton Highlands goes back to when I was two.  My Dad taught biology at the Dept. of Lands and Forests “Ranger School” which eventually became the Leslie Frost Centre.  We lived in one of the “officer’s cabins” down by the lake.  Later, my husband and I rented a cottage on Lake Kushog which connects to Lake St. Norah, where the Leslie Frost Centre is situated.  We paddled around Lake St. Norah for several summers collecting photos of the natural shoreline that the lake is famous for.  Eventually, we bought a cottage on Portage Lake partly so that I could attend courses regularly at the Haliburton School of the Arts.  For several summers I took 4 or 5 weeks of courses and last fall I took the 15 week Drawing and Painting Certificate Course.  Several years ago I  achieved my dream of becoming  an exhibitor at the Ethel Curry Gallery.  I had a show at the Rails End Gallery in 2009 and have shown for the past two summers at the Heritage House Cafe.   Last summer I became part of the Tour de Forest and will continue to be a part of that tour.  This summer I will have a show during the month of August at the Heritage House Cafe featuring Birch Trees.

We still own our little cottage on Portage Lake and use it for displaying my work during the Tour de Forest but last year we bought a year round home on Guilford Lake (which is the other side of Eagle Lake).  I spend as much time there as possible.  My husband and I also own a home near Clinton where my husband practices family medicine.

I achieved another goal this spring, having been asked to have a Solo Exhibition at the Blyth Festival Theatre Gallery in Blyth, Ontario in August of 2013.   The theme will be the Canadian Landscape.

I continue to paint in acrylic and I now make many of  my own canvas supports.  I am experimenting with various textures sometimes incorporating sand into the medium and sometimes working just with the texture of the canvas itself.  I am constantly challenging myself to think “outside the box” with my  artistic composition and some of my newer work is less literal than my earlier work.  This spring I am taking a course with Rod Prouse at the Haliburton School of the Arts called “Landscape:  Working the Land”.  I am very excited to be a part of Made in Haliburton!

Submitted by Susan Hay