Creativity: The Mother of the Arts
~ By Theo Gustafson of Cedar Creek Writers
Bev Mountain's love of creativity bubbles up in so many directions
that it's hard to label her merely painter, or writer, or perhaps most
inclusively, as the architect of a family life enriched by the arts.
In her own childhood, her father was a bush pilot who later joined
the Air Force; thus the family moved so often that Bev actually
attended eighteen different schools. Alone a lot, she used her inner
artistic urges to draw and paint, developed her love of nature, and
explored extensive reading.
Later, when her own family of six children joined her life, she for
years made all their clothes herself, and ensured that there were
always opportunities for music lessons and the other things she felt
made for an enriched childhood.
Then one day, some twenty years ago, she dropped in to a Maple
Bay Painters workshop. She recalls that her skill level was such that the
first day she "learned to make green." All her love of painting came welling up, and hasn't slackened since. She has
worked in watercolour, acrylics, oils, and collage. Many classes in design have focused her desire to "captivate the
eyes." Today she paints for the love of it, sometimes selling in shows, or giving paintings to family or friends.
Bev's early love of reading has led to a natural extension into writing. Writing about family history and
cooking are ways for her to "give children a sense of the past and what is real." Poetry is a way to share places
she has traveled and her insights on life.
By this point in the interview I was not surprised to learn that she has also sung for years in a chorus. But to
Bev, who says that her children are her best creation, there is clearly no border between art and people. She
now has 12 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. This is not a family in which the past is forgotten – not
with a grandmother who writes and distributes books sharing her warm spirit and lessons for the nurturing of
younger generations.
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