Much of my artwork focuses on the hardships of the early settler women who came to the prairies. I read their stories of adversity and isolation in their archival diaries and letters. These early women had no rights and had no say in whether they wanted to come to the harsh prairie life. These bleak stories are compelling, but the women also wrote of their feeling of freedom, power and confidence that came from working alongside the men, and they wrote of their love of the beauty of the land.
From Gertrude Balmer Watt's memoir from her book “A Woman in the West”. Edmonton: The Edmonton News Publishing Co. 1907.
"As we drove farther and farther beyond the fence lines, involuntarily I drew a deeper breath. I know of nothing in life more exalting than to drink in the breath of the prairie air in winter. The rosy light coming across the shimmering deserts of snow, the faint sough of the wind, and the sense of driving on and on you know not where filled me with an intoxication of living that swept me off my feet."
Gertrude came to Edmonton Alberta from Ontario in 1905. She was a journalist, author, and one of the charter members of the Canadian Women's Press Club.