Hawkins Lake, British Columbia, Canada
"I would like to say that I [fell] into all the traps of feeling I had to have my housework done first. I had to attend to friends first. Everything came before my art."Painter, teacher Virginia Eluik-Pettman's work hangs in a bank and in other prominent establishments, as well as in many private collections. She takes many of her subjects from nature and her travel as well as of her family and people she has met or imagined. Portraits of her grandchildren speak of her culture.
In addition to painting, Pettman works with a mental health service and teaches arts and crafts in workshops at the Shuswap Reserve. She also taught painting in Mexico to women in rehab and their children. She no longer does the sanding and finishing for the sculptor.
In a recent letter six years after ending a 35-year marriage, Pettman says, "I'm enjoying my solitary life immensely... slowly coming into my own...Interesting teachings we receive."
