Marjorie returned to Canada after living for eleven years in Indonesia with her husband and four children.  While in Indonesia she took a few watercolour lessons in a larger city but work took them to a remote area on the island of West Kalimantan (Borneo).  Work, which included teaching, nursing and home schooling her children, took priority over art during those years.

In 1998 Marjorie settled in Edmonton where she registered in the University of Alberta, Faculty of Extension Art Certificate Program.  She was delighted to be taken back to the basics of drawing and painting and studied under Jim Davies, Amy Loewan, Brenda Melkinson and Jerry Heine.  Marjorie has also enjoyed attending workshops by artists such as Grant Fuller, Jean Pederson, Ron Wigglesworth and Graham Flatt.  She also studied watercolour and oils with Johannes Vloothuis for two years.

Marjorie’s art is an expression of her love for the Alberta Landscape.  Her paintings are considered representational abstraction in which she simplifies complex scenes into simple shapes and colours.  The shapes and colours work together in a harmonized visual picture that can be identified but at the same time remains abstracted.  She applies many layers of watercolour to develop the rich colours in her paintings.  Her primary use of earth colours makes her paintings warm and inviting.  Most paintings incorporate a gold outline which creates a stained-glass appearance and also serves to harmonize the shapes into a unified whole.  The result is a painting which is reminiscent of Indonesian Batik, a kind of melding of her life in both Indonesia and Canada.

In 2007 Marjorie resigned from her nursing position in the Intensive Care Nursery at the Grey Nun’s Hospital in order to pursue art full time.  Marjorie is a Signature member of the Society of Western Canadian Artists (SWCA), as well as Past President and librarian.  She paints weekly with the Laurier Heights Art Group and is a member of The Edmonton Art Club (EAC).  She is currently the assistant artistic director for the Alberta Society of Artists and works with the ASA Gallery at the Walterdale.   Marjorie lives in Edmonton with her husband Larry.

Marjorie is now offering creativity coaching services to artists who are interested in improving their creativity, working habits and marketing skills.  Contact her at marj@coachingthecreative.ca