prairie girl era

Welcome to my prairie girl era.

My name is Désirée and I’m a social worker and artist who loves to paint the prairies. I live on a small farm, tucked into the flatlands of Manitoba. During the pandemic, I moved into the 1880s farmhouse where my grandparents once lived. When I first arrived, the house needed a lot of tender love and care as it had been vacant for almost eight years. There was peeling apple wallpaper and when it rained outside it rained in the house too. There were boarded up windows and only an aged wood stove for heat. That first winter there were some nights that were so cold that ice formed on the top of water upstairs. Like a prairie girl version of Snow White, I had mice, squirrels, birds, and bees that had taken up residence in the house. Slowly, but surely, I’m transforming this place into my home. One of the most treasured places is my art studio. It’s a light-filled space on the second floor, facing a small creek that laughs each spring and cluster of trees that surrounds a weathered barn.

I’m the fourth generation to walk amongst the fields, search for snapping turtles in the dugout, and watch barn swallows cartwheel overhead.

Though truthfully, I wasn’t always a fan of being here.

For years I wanted to live by the ocean. I yearned for salt water so deeply. I applied (and interviewed) for jobs and browsed real estate markets. I researched changing my social work registration to a new province. I travelled to the coast repeatedly. I created budgets for the move. I attended two artist residencies - on both the East and West coast. I painted whales and other marine life almost exclusively for three years.

And yet, I never relocated from the prairies - there was something that kept me rooted in this special place. There’s a part of me that believes that the prairies waited patiently for me to love it back. I’ve come to realize that this will always be my home. Maybe it’s the way that wind ripples across the tall grasses of the pastures or that perfect smell of rain on a hayfield. How the meadowlarks sing and or the majesty of a prairie thunderstorm with dark clouds blooming. Maybe it’s witnessing fields of sunflowers turn their faces to the sun or the magic of a world that turns so perfectly white in winter. Watching the fox kits romp each spring. Or how the sunset flings colours wide, until you’re standing under a kaleidoscope as far as the eye can see.

The prairies have a quiet, gentle beauty that soothes the soul - sometimes without you even realizing it. If you’re ever in doubt, let me lead you out into a wheat field in autumn when it’s a blaze of gold and the Red-tailed Hawk soars overhead. Or down a dirt road at dusk, while crickets and frogs create a symphony and the coyotes cry in the distance.

I have big and beautiful dreams for creating a life on these prairie lands.
I want to create art that tells the story of my home. I want to paint every backroad and sketch out scenes from the seat of my kayak on all the local lakes. I want to tell the story of women in agriculture and one day create a space under the prairie sun for artists to gather. I want to write and illustrate a children’s book that celebrates the life of a prairie birds.

So many wonderful adventures lay ahead on this land of big, open skies.

Thank-you for joining the journey!

Many blessings,

Désirée