by Jo Barnes | photos by Leah Gray –
For 32 years, Sandy Terry taught students and watched them bloom, and upon retirement, she embarked on a new career painting beautiful and much sought-after blooms of her own creation. Terry, a nationally-recognized acrylic artist who lives in Sidney, specializes in large paintings of flowers.
“I’m doing art that fills my soul,” she shares. “I find subject matter that moves me, and flowers bring me joy.”
While her art has been featured in numerous art publications and on display at sites including Sidney’s Peninsula Gallery, Gallery 8 on Salt Spring Island, and the Federation of Gallery in Vancouver, it all began merely as an idea before she retired. “In the last five years of teaching, I started telling people I was going to paint when I retired,” she says.
Sandy attended meetings of local art organizations, including the Island Illustrators and the Federation of Canadian Artists, and spent summers creating Georgia O’Keefe-inspired works. Over time, she developed her skills and began to capture the attention of art appreciators and exhibit judges, earning her the coveted SSCA (Senior Signature Status Member with The Federation of Canadian Artists). “This designation is a blessing to me. It holds me accountable for professional standards and has also helped establish credibility with appreciators and galleries,” she notes.
Her works of art are not only full of incredible detail, but done in dimensions that are anything but standard. “My paintings are larger: 30 by 70 inches,” says Sandy. “I found working a larger area spiritually expansive and couldn’t go back to the smaller size.”
She enjoys the physical act of painting: “I need more room to move. I like turning the canvas around and moving to music as I paint.”
Sandy’s artistic talent has been evidenced since her childhood. She shares a memory of herself as a Kindergarten student: “I was trying to draw my mom’s face. I had drawn her red wavy hair, her face and eyes, but I was frustrated trying to figure out how to draw her nose. My teacher gasped when she saw my picture. All the other kids drew just circles with lines.”
The fine arts were part of the home where she grew up. “My dad was a weekend artist and did pen and ink drawing and some painting too, and my mom was actively involved in community theatre,” shares Sandy.
While she was always interested in drawing and painting, family and career demands made her put those aspirations on hold. After she retired from teaching, she dusted off those dreams and began to hone her craft. “I did a weekend class with local artist, Nicholas Pearce who made me realize the importance of value, that is, the darkness or lightness of colour,” she relates.
Sandy begins the process of creating her paintings by studying and editing her own photographs of her subject. “There are often hidden gems in a photo,” she comments. “I am trying to find movement in the image.” After drawing the image and determining the form, she begins the long phase of painting which involves layering the acrylic paint. “With darks for the background, I add more and more layers,” she relates. “I apply a lot of transparent paints, and might have as many as 15 layers. I use a technique called scumbling which is why the petals look so soft.”
Her building of tone-on-tone colour creates depth and amazingly detailed flowers. “I have a strong colour sense,” she shares. “I know how to mix colours. This comes from my work as a print maker years ago.”
Sandy’s paintings, which take several months to complete, have a quality of photographic realism. One can almost smell the essence of the flower and feel the softness of each petal.
It’s challenging and often unforgiving work, but she is propelled forward by the rewards. “I work from photographs, so I can’t make a lot of mistakes because they show through,” she notes, adding with a smile: “I push to the limits of what I can do, but I’m where I want to be. I am always having fun, and I’m not aware of the passage of time.”
Her art offers not only the opportunity to engage with her imagination, but it provides a way to make connections with others. “Art provides an emotional connection,” shares Sandy. “A woman whose father had passed away from Covid asked me to create a piece to remind her of him. I did a white peony and gave it the title ‘Eternal’ for the love from her dad was eternal. It was a privilege to make this piece for her.”
Retirement has brought Sandy a new direction in her life and a new way to interact with the world around her. In her studio, with a brush in her hand, a grin on her face, and swaying to music, she is blooming right where she’s planted.
For more information, visit www.sandyterry.ca.
