Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Friday, January 11, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Over the course of two afternoons spent in the habitat of Jen Walden, I learned it takes more than just slapping paint onto a canvas to create something as gorgeous as one of her pieces.

Above, Jen Walden works on a painting at her Yellowknife home. - Laura Power/NNSL photo Laura Power with her painting after the Arts 101 session with Jen Walden. - Jen Walden photo

Of course I knew that already from looking at her work, but last weekend I got to learn all of the steps that help her take a blank canvas and make something beautiful out of it.

Jen showed up at Raven Studio in Old Town with a couple of long canvases for us to work on. I unfolded the picture of Signal Hill I was hoping to paint and looked back and forth between that and my canvas. They were not the same shape.

Perhaps noting my confusion and obvious inexperience, Jen showed me a couple of ways I could use my muse - Cabot Tower - in a way that worked on the canvas.

I used to draw a lot in high school and beyond but I guess somewhere along the way I dropped my pencil and started typing.

It was intimidating to try again but as it turns out, it's sort of like riding a bike - you never forget how.

Then came the fun part, where we got to play with goop (she calls it gloss gel medium). It's the thick, white paint she uses to create the striking texture in her paintings. I slapped it on the sky, I slapped it on the tower and I slapped it on the rocks.

I'd stop occasionally to see her project, which was a floral painting.

With no photo to work with and having plucked this image out of thin air, it still somehow looked like she knew exactly what she was doing.

"I never take photos and decidedly recreate that," she said. "That composition has already been done ... I'm not interested in reproducing."

She said her paintings are much like mistakes, of which she decides which mistakes to keep and which to get rid of.

The next day, I joined Jen at her home in Old Town. Her walls were decorated with her half-finished paintings and a large portion of the house was dedicated to easels and materials. She told me how creating art has been a large part of her life for many years.

"Since I was old enough to hold a crayon, all I've wanted to do is draw," she said, explaining that she chose painting as a childhood hobby over going outside or playing video games. "I just lived for painting."

It was time to layer on the paint, which I learned is done in several steps.

She taught me how to catch paint on the texture, different brush strokes and how to see each layer by not overpainting.

"For me, it's really important to not overwork a piece, and that usually happens when I think too much," she said. "If I just have fun and trust myself it just comes together."

Sure enough, after two afternoons of what felt like just hanging out, our paintings both came together.

And mine didn't turn out too bad, either.

The monstrosity of ink and goop I had created the day before could actually pass for a painting.

"I'm completely impressed and I think you have a natural ability as a painter," she said.

Aw, shucks.

With a coach like Jen, it's hard to produce something terrible.