Art fosters friendships in Laurier Heights

By Jennifer Carbert

LAURIER HEIGHTS – Classical music plays quietly in the background as artists pull out their canvases and paints at the Laurier Heights community hall.

Their informal leader, Helen Richardson, said the group starting meeting more than 20 years ago for eight week teaching sessions. Today the club meets every Monday and Thursday for a couple of hours in the afternoon simply to paint with each other.

“I thrive off feeding off of each other,” said David Brooks, an artists who paints with the group.

Richardson said there is no competition, just a chance to get critique and help from friends.

Marilyn Flynn has been painting with the group for 10 years. She remembers having all sorts of trouble when she was painting a portrait but found suggestions from the group.

“There’s always somebody that will come and help,” she said.

The art group puts on two shows a year to display and potentially sell their work. In October they set up at the community hall and in April they put their art on display at the Misericordia Hospital. Richardson said every year she is impressed at how much better the art gets.

“We think, ‘My God, we have improved’.”

Richardson is especially thankful for the Laurier Heights art club and the role it has played in her painting life.

“I don’t think I’d be painting if I didn’t have this group,” she said.