A quaint little house resting upon the rocky shores of the Pembroke
beach. Surrounded by fields of tall grass swaying in the wind, no one would
think that anyone lives here. And certainly no one would imagine what went
on under the caving roof of this little house. But inside, there lived
two women both with a phenomenal artistic talent. The two women were Helen
Weld and Lucy Jarvis and this little house is the place where they created
the paintings they are so well known for. Many years ago, nothing but farmers
fields surrounded Helen and Lucy . They lived among the tall grass of the
pastures and the cold winds of the Pembroke shore. These two artisticly
inclined women always had friends come over to visit, play music or pose
while they painted. The collection of their work, currently travelling
across Nova Scotia, is filled with scenes of Pembroke and the neighboring
areas as well as pictures of curious little children who had gotten tired
of their farming chores so after wandering across the pastures, ended up
at Helen and Lucy's posing for a portrait. What a better way to capture
the beauty of an area as desolute as Pembroke than to capture its every
day scenes on canvas. This July, stop by Yarmouth's local theatre, Th'Yarc
, where a collection of their artwork will be on display for public viewing.
This rustic bay window, which overlooks the velvety green undergrowth
of the Pembroke countryside, is where many of their paintings came to life.
The simplicity of their artwork is what makes this collection so special.
Helen Weld still lives in the same quaint little house she shared with
her longtime friend Lucy Jarvis. After Lucy's death in 1983, she's been
living alone with just her dog and visiting friends to keep her company.
The fields surrounding her are no longer farmed, but used as spacious playgrounds,
and those that play there are the children and grandchildren of the farmers
captured on the canvases of Helen Weld and Lucy Jarvis.
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