A Painting Comes Full Circle: Balsam Lake at Queen’s Park

In 2003, I received an unexpected honour when my painting Balsam Lake, a 40" x 50" mixed-media work on canvas, was selected for a purchase award by the Archives of Ontario as part of their 100th anniversary celebrations.

Twenty-three years later, I received a most wonderful surprise. I was contacted by curator Lani Kopczinski to tell me that Balsam Lake would be included in an exhibition titled Together Ensemble, at the Legislative Building of Ontario, in the office of Her Honour, Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumont. Even more remarkably, the painting will be part of this exhibition for the next five years!

I have to admit that I had no idea where the painting had been since its acquisition in 2003. I hadn't seen it in all those years. To know that it is now hanging in such a distinguished setting, and that it will be seen by visitors for years to come, is an extraordinary feeling.

October 21 was quite a day for me. I was invited as a guest of the Lieutenant Governor to visit the exhibition at Queen's Park, on the very same day that I was installing my own exhibition, Shared Space, at Artscape Youngplace. A busy day, to say the least!

There was something rather special about these two exhibitions happening at the same time. My painting style and artistic direction have evolved considerably since 2003. Looking at Balsam Lake again, I was reminded of an earlier chapter in my artistic journey, while Shared Space represents much of where my work has taken me today. It was an unexpected opportunity to reflect on just how much my practice has changed and grown over time.

Meeting Her Honour and Lani Kopczinski was a real highlight. They were so warm, kind and effusive in their welcome that I was quite overwhelmed. I had brought along the original plein air oil pastel sketch I made at Balsam Lake, the little work that preceded the much larger painting. They seemed genuinely excited to see it, and it was lovely to share that part of the painting's history with them.

I am deeply honoured to have Balsam Lake included in Together Ensemble. As artists, we send our work out into the world and often have little idea where it will travel or whose lives it might touch. To have this painting resurface after so many years, and to know it has found a place where it will be appreciated and seen, is a gift.

I am so grateful to the Archives of Ontario, curator Lani Kopczinski and Her Honour, Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumont for making this possible. It means a great deal to me to know that a painting I made all those years ago is still out there, continuing its journey.

Her Honour, Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumont

Her Honour, Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumont and curator Lani Kopczinski

photo credit for all photos; Ester Pugliese

Shared Space, Nature in the city and the Messy middle

NATURE AND THE CITY

A Two-Person Exhibition at Artscape Youngplace

October 23–30, 2026
12:30–6:00 pm daily
Hallway Gallery, Third Floor
Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Toronto

Toronto, Ontario — Nature and the City, explores the evolving relationship between the natural world and the urban landscape.

Landscape artist Piera Pugliese, nature has always been a source of beauty, tranquility and reflection. A longtime resident and painter of the Humber River, Pugliese has watched Toronto's landscape change firsthand. Her recent paintings document the construction of the Eglinton LRT as it crosses the Humber River, capturing a landscape in transition.

Working from plein air sketches and photographs, Pugliese brings these observations into the studio to create larger oil paintings. Her work acknowledges both her deep need for nature and the reality that a growing city requires infrastructure and public transit. The paintings explore the tension between development and the natural environment, while observing nature's remarkable ability to persist and adapt.

The works in Nature and the City invite viewers to pause and consider the landscapes we inhabit, what is changing around us, and how nature and the city might continue to coexist.

Exhibition: Nature and the City
Dates: October 23–30, 2026
Hours: 12:30–6:00 pm
Location: Artscape Youngplace, Hallway Gallery, Third Floor
Address: 180 Shaw Street, Toronto, Ontario

July 10 (A Wave from Above) oil on canvas, 48”x40”

Youngplace Hallway Galleries 3rd Floor

The earth laughs in flowers

The title of this exhibition comes from a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The earth laughs in flowers.” In a single phrase, Emerson captures the joy, vitality, and emotional power flowers bring into our lives.

Flowers accompany us through our most meaningful moments. They are given in celebration and sympathy, in love and remembrance, at births, weddings, funerals, and quiet everyday acts of care. Their presence can comfort, uplift, and transform a space or a mood. Long before words are spoken, flowers communicate emotion through colour, fragility, abundance, and scent.

Each spring, after months of dormancy, the earth awakens in blossoms. Trees bloom, gardens emerge, and the landscape bursts into colour, marking renewal, resilience, and the return of life itself. In this series, flowers become more than decorative subjects; they are emotional markers and symbols of connection.

The Earth Laughs in Flowers celebrates the beauty and emotional resonance flowers bring to our lives, reminding us that even the smallest bloom can carry profound meaning.

Territories: City and Urban Landscapes

My paintings explore the intersection of nature and built environment within Etobicoke.  Blossoming trees rise above cars and bungalows, sunsets spill across crowded streets, and the Humber River winds its way through changing seasons and climate change. These urban spaces hold stories of how we live, move and find beauty in our daily life.  I reflect on how cities both nurture and fragment our connection to nature.  Parking lots, traffic jams, and heatwaves become part of the landscape, shaping how we experience continuity, community, and change.  I aim to capture the fragile coexistence of city and nature, and how our sense of place is shaped by both.

Tokens of love

For centuries, women were confined to the quiet corners of art history, permitted to paint flowers, but not politics; beauty, but not meaning.  Floral painting was considered decorative, delicate, and safely domestic.  It was never meant to be serious. Never meant to be powerful.
In Tokens of Love, I reclaim the flower as both subject and symbol..on my terms.  Each painting in this series is based on real flowers gifted to me by loved ones: small, intimate gestures of care and connection.  These are not anonymous still lifes, but portraits, not only of the blooms themselves, but of the people and relationships they represent.
By returning to this historically “feminine” subject with intention, complexity, and emotional depth, I challenge the notion that flowers are trivial.  I render them with scale, presence, and reverence.  In doing so, I resist the long-standing devaluation of women’s experiences and women’s work.
These are not passive blooms.  They carry memory, grief, resilience, joy, tenderness and love in all its layered and often unspoken forms.
There are unapologetically personal.
They speak to the power of small things held close.
They honour the quiet radicalism of care.
And they insist that intimacy is not weakness, but strength.

Soft as a Rose, oil on cradled board, 6”x6”

Tokens of Love, Solo show at Ruth Upjohn Gallery, Women’s Art Association of Canada, 23 Prince Arthur Ave. October 8-18, I will be there Fridays and Saturdays. I would be so pleased to see you there.

Between Field and forest

Every time I passed this spot (Old Baseline Rd and Heartlake Rd)on my way home from Headwaters Gallery, I’d think “Now that’s a painting”.  The soft, rolling hills and the quiet beauty of the countryside are always the best part of the drive. During my last landscape show “The Next 50 Years” people kept asking me if the paintings were from the area, and I realized I didn’t have one that captured Caledon/ Alton area.  Then one morning, after a heavy rainfall, the sky opened up with extraordinary light and cloud.  I pulled over to take a photos. I needed a new piece for the Fall Festival group show.  I couldn’t submit work that had just  shown.  That morning’s moment gave me exactly what I needed.

Between Field and Forest, oil on cradled wood panel, 24”x30”

The opening night soiree is a blast.

Stretching Canvas

I spent 3 days pulling paintings off of old stretchers, roll them up and put them away, saving some storage space. Then I reenforced the stretchers, stretched canvas over them and applied gesso. It’s one of those things that just needs to be done every so often. I learned to do this in college, OCA, and I am glad I did. I use heavy gauge cotton canvas that is so much stronger than what is offered out there right now. To the pre-stretched I usually have to apply a second coat of gesso to give it a little more strength. I prepared 10 canvases, 5 that are very large, 40”x 48”, that would have cost me a fortune ready made. Now I am looking forward to an exciting time of creating.

Degrees of Expression

Every year Women’s Art of Canada sponsors scholarships to OCAD U. At the end of the year the students and past alumni show together. This year I was lucky enough to enter 2 paintings Midsummer Pride, oil on canvas, 24’ x 38” and Way Too Hot for October, oil on canvas, 24” x 36”

Chaos and order

At Headwaters Arts Gallery, August 6 to September 14

I find it hard to paint totally abstract, I always end up with a landscape.  I do try though.  With both these paintings I chose a colour chord and just splashed with no agenda other than a pleasing image.  One thing lead to another like a daisy chain and like reading clouds an image emerges.  Its fun when it works.  Some can be brought to a decent finish with lot of looking.  But the most may as well be thrown away.  Of course I have them stacked up in my studio hoping for miracles.

The next 50 years solo show

Show Statement
In 1984, Sir David Attenborough warned, “ The next 50 years will determine the fate of all life on this planet.”  Now 40 years later, we are living the consequences of our inaction.  Wild fires, floods, drought and vanishing ecosystems have made it painfully clear: we are on the brink.
This body of work is both a reflection and a reckoning - a way of looking closely at the Southern Ontario landscape, not just for its beauty, but for its vulnerability.  Each painting begins outdoors, painted en plein air in the forests, on the trails, or near water.  These moments in nature- hearing birdsong, feeling the wind, watching the light shift- are a reminder of what still exists, and what may not endure.
Back in the studio, I translate these impressions into larger works that carry both awe and urgency.  I paint to preserve what I love, but also to ask:  What are we willing to lose?  What will we fight to protect?
As Canadians, our identity is tied deeply to the land.  These paintings are a celebration of colour and place, but also a quiet alarm. The land - like the animals who live within it- has never been able to shield itself from us.  Its still generous, still breathtaking, and still at risk.

I just wrapped up this show, it was a great experience. Thank you to everyone who came to see it at Headwaters Arts Gallery in Alton

I used to own a restuarant

For over 50 years I worked with my husband in his restaurant Vesuvio Pizzeria and Spaghetti House. Restaurant work is hard, tiring, demanding, sometimes demeaning, interesting, exhilarating, friendly, warm, and so much more. We are retired now and the restaurant is gone. I used to love the sounds in the dinning room, the tinkling of glasses, the chatter, the bursts laughter, music in the background, they were warm and cozy sounds. I miss those but I don’t miss the work.
Now I have time to paint! Now I have time to mount a show, find community in the art world, read and study other artist, go to openings and museums. My life is completely different. Now I aim to be in the studio 5 mornings a week 4-5 hrs a day. Nice work week, eh? I paint what I want and I don’t need to worry that it may not be to someone else taste. I am my own boss, have you ever worked with your husband and extended family? It’s not easy! I am no longer in the service industry, I am in the service of me industry. The things that are the same? I use creativity to paint, cook and even running a restaurant, I am very unhappy when I can’t be creative. Ingredients and materials, get combined in different ways to come up with a new dish or a new painting. The new ideas both in cooking and painting require experimentation, technique, and a good foundation. Emotion is a strong influencer in the outcome. Presentation is key for the consumer. Finally with patience, practice, and passion painting like cooking or even running a restaurant can be incredibly rewarding.

Mcmichael En plein air competition

I have not had much time to Blog, (really me blogging?) Well, I like to learn new things. I entered the McMichael en plein air competition last year and this. This year I was short listed and yesterday I learned I won third place. Go figure. It is a thrill to be displayed at the McMichael gallery and the show will be up till the end of March. This of course makes me itch to get back out there in nature to paint. Meanwhile if anyone wants to join me, usually in James Gardens, just contact me through the website and I can introduce you to my group in the spring. Until then I am working on a two person show Into the Wilds; Toronto and the Territories, opening April 1 at Heliconian Hall on Hazelton Ave. Thanks for reading

PAINTING IS LIKE COOKING

MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Some of you may know that I am celiac. Imagine owning an Italian restaurant ,Vesuvio, that specializes in pizza and pasta and not being able to eat any of it. I have had re-invented my favourite dishes and can share some of them here. For me cooking is very closely related to painting. Warm, cool, dark and light, sweet, sour, salt and cream, texture and overall presentation all elements that need to be juggled to make something special in cooking and painting.

Here is the recipe for my favourite Christmas cookies

Rosemary Hazelnut Cranberry Cookies

2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup hazelnuts toasted and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup melted butter
7 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

mix dry ingredients then add mixed wet ingredients, roll into log shape in wax paper and refrigerate.
Slice when firm, gently, it will fall apart, just reshape by hand.
Preheat oven to 350 F line baking sheets with parchment paper. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. Careful almond flour burns easily, let the cookies cool on baking the sheets before you try to move them, they will be very tender but will firm up as they cool. Enjoy!