filled a blank wall in San Jose

How a desire to fill blank walls became a lifelong passion.

By Megan Clendenan

It's a drizzly Sunday in Burnaby and Vanessa Wellington-Clark – an artist, non-profit fundraiser and mom to a 10-year-old daughter – has brought her home-mixed acrylic paint up from the basement and set up her canvas in the living room. She sits comfortably on the floor. Though she works with only one colour at a time, she chooses from an array of brushes. Each wall in the living room is adorned with her paintings, including a huge triptych featuring gray and white flowers. It's mid-afternoon but Vanessa has already been painting for several hours and has no plans to stop. In the centre of the room, her daughter choreographs a new dance routine for her stuffed animals. They chat on occasion, but each continue with their own projects.

Vanessa's beginnings as an artist were more practical than artistic. “We were living in an apartment, we didn't have any artwork and we were pretty broke.” So slowly she began to fill her walls with her work.

Though she describes herself as not a “true artist”, Wellington-Clark has nurtured painting as a hobby for much of her adult life. “I spent most of my childhood and teen years dancing so I had my creative outlet, but then in my adult years I stopped dancing and I just needed something.” After taking a few night classes at Emily Carr University and experimenting with pencil drawings and watercolours, that something turned out to be acrylic painting. Painting is now a significant part of her life, contributing much more than just art for her walls. For Vanessa, painting encourages relaxation, nourishes creativity and provides a healthy focus that reduces stress.

“Having a hobby like painting is great. If I'm not painting then I feel like I'm missing something, like when my daughter is not around I miss her," says Wellington-Clark, who also paints for family, and often gets requests for her work from friends and acquaintances. "If I haven't got a project on the go I feel a bit incomplete.”

For Vanessa, space inspires art. At home, swayed by the trees, gardens and flowers out of every window, her blank walls have been transformed into an extension of her outside environment. When painting for other people, she is motivated by the person, their interests and their space. “I can't paint something for somebody just off the top of my head, I actually like to see where they want it. It's sounds very practical and boring. If I was a true artist I would say something like 'Well, I had this vivid dream about pumpkins and toilet paper, and then I incorporated some chicken wire,'" she jokes. "But it's not like that. I like to paint for a purpose.”