Originally published by The Brampton Guardian, Wednesday, May 11th, 2005

Written by Tina Depko, Staff Writer

Photo by GEORGE BESHIRI
The art of Pam Pols is currently on display at Shoppers World.

Trees adorned with orange and gold leaves appear to sway back and forth on a canvas. On another, a solitary blue canoe rests on a green, moss-covered bank beside a still lake.

These are just two Muskoka scenes brought to life by Brampton artist Pam Pols.

A group of her works are on display as part of Artway: A Place to Live, A Place to Grow - Images of Ontario, which runs at Shopper's World until May 27.

Most of Pols' paintings in the exhibit portray different scenes from Muskoka, where she and her husband have a cottage. They live there June through October, giving Pols dozens of ideas for paintings.

Trees are her favourite subject and are central to her works in the show.

"When the trees move with the wind, it gives you this primitive urge," Pols explained. "If you can capture that in a painting, that person doesn't need to go where you have been. They can get it from the painting."

Pols became interested in art when she was working as a teacher in her 20s. While taking summer classes on teaching art in the classroom at the Ontario College of Art, she realized she had a natural artistic ability.

She enrolled in a few studio classes at York University, eventually gaining enough credits to earn a fine arts degree. However, a busy schedule put a hold on her artistic output.

"I was very busy teaching, travelling and raising children, so I gave it up in my early 30s," Pols explained.

"I didn't do anything in the serious vein until I retired."

Pols now paints almost every day, although her volunteer activities as a story reader at Dorset Drive and Robert J. Lee schools keeps her busy during the school year.

The total amount of time Pols invests in a painting varies from a few hours to several weeks.

"You can't do it all at once," she said. "You have to get away from it in order to see it clearly again. It is important you have a lot on the go, so you can go in and work on one painting and then go fresh to another one. I've got about eight easels in my studio in a crescent shape so I can go down there and touch up all around."

Pols said she also has dozens of her paintings hanging throughout her house that are still works in progress.

"Sometimes I touch them up right there on the walls," she laughed.

Pols mostly paints nature scenes using acrylic and oil paints. Her work has a strong element of Canadiana, which is not surprising, considering her love for Muskoka and her artistic inspirations.

"The Group of Seven are among my favourite painters," she explained.

Besides painting nature scenes, Pols also sketches and paints figures at Visual Arts Brampton every week. She has also spent the past five years working with watercolours.

She said she hopes people who see A Place to Live, A Place to Grow - Images of Ontario will be inspired to pick up a pencil or paint brush themselves.

"Hopefully it will rouse people's own interest in art and maybe get them started," she said. "Everyone has an artistic talent inside them. They just have to let it out."

Pols also hopes it will inspire them to take a road trip and explore this vast province.

"I hope people see that the landscape of Ontario includes the wilderness as well as the settled areas," she said. "Maybe it will make people want to go up north for a day trip and look at the trees and see how beautiful they are."