Follow Art by Isla on Instagram artsy_isla
When Isla Gemmill paints, her surroundings disappear, and happiness and peace take over. She has been painting since she was one year old, and now, at 14, she embraces her talent and uses it to spread joy.
Gemmill lives with her family on their farm just outside of Stonewall. When she was ten, her grandparents gifted her a watercolour set.
“That’s when I really started trying to make something out of it,” she said. “I’ve always loved art, ever since I was little. It was always an accessible space for me.”
Gemmill sees firsthand that inspiration can come from anywhere. For her, life on the farm often provides the inspiration that keeps her passion going.
“The biggest thing that inspires me is probably my surroundings. I go to the pasture when we’re hauling cattle, and I’ll see something to paintm” said Gemmill.
Growing up on a farm, Gemmill finds that her paintings reflect a great love of nature. When she sees subjects like animals or flowers, she cannot resist the urge to paint them.
“Last summer, my family went on a trip to British Columbia, and the entire time we were there I was telling my family I wanted to paint things, even small things like a flower, a bird, or a bug,” she shared.
Of course, Gemmill also draws creative inspiration from watching her family practice their forms of art: her grandma used to do wood paintings, her nana crochets and sews, and her mom crochets.
Though she does dedicate most of her creativity to painting, Gemmill also practices other forms of visual art, ink sketching and graphite drawings, and she would love to try oil painting. She has also been playing guitar and piano since she was around six, focusing on piano more due to upcoming exams. She participates in school sports, club volleyball, softball, and curling.
“I recently went through a phase of painter’s block for the longest time. I got out of it like a week ago. When I am in that block, I usually turn to music, and I do a lot of reading.”
“I love writing, too,” said Gemmill. “It’s not something I do often, but sometimes I write the odd story. Once, my sister and I went to the pasture and saw a porcupine, so I wrote a little book about it.”
Though she is constantly indulging in something creative, Gemmill’s favourite pastime is painting, and her favourite part of painting is making people happy with her work.
“The reactions that some people have to the paintings that I give them is almost the best part of it,” she shared. “It’s just so special. I painted my grandpa’s semi truck because it was really special to him. He was a gravel truck driver with his own gravel company. He had to sell the truck, so I painted it for him for his 70th birthday. I didn’t know I could make people feel that emotion just with paper.”
As for Gemmill’s future, though she is in the eighth grade, she does have some ideas for what she would like to pursue after high school.
“I’ve always kind of wanted to be an ecologist and do something in biology. Nature is my favourite thing to paint. It would be so cool to have a job where I could tie my art in,” she said.
Gemmill plans to build up her inventory to start participating in more markets, which she has done before Christmas. Occasionally, she also does art sales on her Instagram story: @artsy_isla. Another one of Gemmill’s goals is to enter an art competition in the future.
“My art is a way to express myself and capture moments that are important to me. Painting is the thing I love; it’s something that I can always fall back to. Everything in my mind goes away. I tune the world out,” said Gemmill. “There’s something that spreads through you when you paint. It’s like the picture in my mind has come out on the paper.”
Her creative practices are central to Gemmill’s life, and she hopes everyone has their own creative pastime to fall into.
“Painting comes with practice, and a lot of people put it off, but anybody can paint. I have seen people that don’t start until their 60 and they turn out to be amazing at it. We all go through phases and changes as we get older, and it’s just so nice to have art to fall back onto. I think everybody has their own creativity inside of them, they just have to find it. No matter how old you get, art will always be there.”
Tribune Photos Submitted
