Brenda Turnour comes by her artistic talent naturally. A fourth generation artist, she\u2019s been painting since she was eight years old. Her great grandfather, W.A. Fraser was a writer and illustrator; her grandfather painted and carved birds; her mother created images for Hallmark cards; and Turnour sold her first oil painting at age 12. She won her first major art award in France while at the University of Caen for a pen and ink rendition of a \u2018manoir\u2019 \u2013 her prize was a camera.<\/p>\n
A handful of the hundreds of paintings she has created are on display at the Dwight Public Library this month where she is the featured artist for November. The display, Vistas of Our Canadian Shield, showcases her love for natural landscapes but also includes a few of her personal favourites, like a winter streetscape.<\/p>\n
Like many artists, Turnour uses different media to create but has her favourites \u2013 watercolours and acrylics. With acrylics, she likes to paint \u201clarge and loose\u201d and completes many of these while staying in Lake of Bays. Her watercolours, on the other hand, have finer details and she likes them to be technically correct. They often portray architecture or people.<\/p>\n
Turnour often paints landscapes from images in her head, rather than using a photograph as a reference, and uses artistic license when she wants to. In a painting of Tower Hill Park, for example, she has omitted all but the maples just because she could.<\/p>\n\n\t\t