Edith Fullerton’s art makes you look twice, perhaps because her perspective has an intimacy that’s hard to ignore. One glance and you’re caught, much as the artist is when she attacks a subject.

“I like to paint things that strike me,” she says. “The funny thing is when I see something that I know is going to work as a painting I’ll get this flash. I can almost see the painting already. I’ll ruminate on that and, if I’m lucky and have a camera, I can capture the image.”

A teacher of senior elementary art in Peel region for 18 years, Edith is now retired. In the last years of her teaching she assigned a task to get her students to think about the fragile environment.

“I said everything was getting so fractured,” she says. “We’re going to take an image and call it Drawn and Quartered, literally.” Her assignment was simple: “Show that man is influencing the environment. As artists we can do this without destroying anything. We can have fun with it. Do it in a benign way. Don’t go out and destroy it literally.” Her teaching example stands in her studio today — a Monarch butterfly, quartered, with some half turns — and it captures the attention as did her students’ results, which awed her.

Fullerton has taken her fine arts degree and set up shop in a studio in her home that overlooks Horseshoe Lake, near Parry Sound. It’s the perfect place to resume her life’s dream for, as she says, if you’re not inspired here, where would you be?

“I retired early to paint. I wanted to paint all my life and I’d just do one or two a year because I just didn’t have time,” she says. “Now I’m feeling freer and I can experiment.”

That is evident in a recent work, Light Ballet, that depicts light dancing as it’s observed through a plane’s window. Oil on canvas with cheesecloth incorporated for texture, it is well-named — the light coming through the yellows and blues does seem to dance.

A series of small prints with a combination of layers of paint and resist technique creates natural textures. Swing Collage has been created out of several copies of one picture of her neighbour’s swing, cut apart and reassembled in an amusing study, evidence she has been having fun. “I really get a charge out of doing something different. I don’t necessarily use brushes. I might just use a piece of rolled up newspaper. I’m trying to free myself up. I’m exploring more than I ever did, which is a real treat.” Her studio, cork floored with three walls of windows, has a high worktop in a corner with a double aspect to the outdoors. A staging of rocks and twisted root speak to nature, sitting beside her bottles of brushes. All is atop an engineer’s desk, perfect for artist storage. It is no wonder Fullerton is in her studio every day.

Working in watercolour, acrylic and oils, each painting is a study, a contemplative work. She has executed a series of paintings with hands as the subject — stirring a cup of tea, tying shoelaces, washing a crystal bowl, buttoning a shirt.

The last came about as an attempt at peace. “In a time of terrorism I thought, right now nothing else matters but this: buttoning this shirt, holding this peaceful thought,” she adds. Another shows Fullerton signing a painting and one-third of it is almost as if in shadow. “I’m thinking of the artist never being complete. The painting is purposefully not complete. I am a work in progress.” These two were both honoured to be included in a juried show in Mississauga.

Edith’s art comes in original paintings and in limited edition archival quality giclée prints.

Their simple charm speaks to the complexity of the subjects that range from landscape to glimpsed moments of humanity. Sunday Mourning is simply an aged lady sitting in a chair on her small balcony, hand on cane. Boy with Binoculars, crouched on a deck. Creature Comforts is a portrait of George, a loved pet.

Her brushes will visit decks as well as doorways and balconies. The Charles portrays a man leaning on a balcony in France staring off into space. The intimacy of her viewpoint is revealed in the picture of a slip of a dress hanging among fall leaves. “It’s actually my daughter’s dress and I hung it in a tree down at the dock,” she explains. “She’s 23 and I’m thinking she’s growing into this woman and what may be happening in the future.” She calls it Harbinger.

“The autumn leaves reflect that along with the shadows on the dress. There’s more to her life and who knows?” The palette in this and many others is soft. “I start with a wash in the back and I paint in sections. I might paint the leaves a very light yellow at first and then add to it, layering colours on top.” The leaves are almost translucent. “That’s what I like about watercolour,” says Fullerton. “It’s transparent and you can see through it.” If she overworks the effect she will start again, sometimes repeating the project as many as four times until she’s satisfied.

A hot press paper was used to create a memorable picture of a deck chair on a wet deck. The decking literally glistens with a thin sheen of water. “A hot press paper will not absorb the paint so much. It’s tricky to paint on, but I managed to get this effect. It really worked, layering the colours that way. I was really thrilled! One of the tricks with watercolour is the paper. The paper is critical to how your work turns out. You experiment as you go.” And have fun while you’re doing it.

Fullerton’s work is on display in art shows in the area, including Artists Round the Sound at the CP Rail Station (Aug. 4 – 28, Sept. 1 – 29).