we're all kinds of creative
Thelma Paul Genoe
Born in Charlottetown, Thelma spent her early life in Stanhope, PEI, before relocating with her family to Ontario. She completed her university degree in English Literature at the University of Guelph and went on to spend her career working in academic libraries, including at the University of Guelph and Trent University, where her area of specialization was Government Publications.
Upon returning to PEI, she is now able to pursue her first love of painting and sketching in the home she shares with her husband and canine family, in a small studio she fondly calls: Harbour Lights Studio, inspired by the amazing and ever-changing views across from the busy working harbour at Georgetown. In 2020, she joined Artisans on Main, Montague, where her decorative arts, including paintings, pens and inks, hand-painted tiles and boxes, can be seen sharing space with the work of many other talented local artists and craftspeople.
The Roots of My Work :
I have been sketching and painting for as long as I can remember. Having returned to Prince Edward
Island, the province of my birth, I have found a renewed source of happiness and peace, far from the
maddening crowd.
PEI has been a place of stories throughout my lifetime, a place well-loved and lived in since the early
1900’s by my father, who came here as a young orphan child from Wales, Great Britain. My mother, too,
chose the Maritimes as her home from her early twenties, settling in Prince Edward Island, and making it
the family home for much of her adult life.
It is from this rich background, embellished with tales of life and friendship, hard work, horse-drawn
buggies, and community on PEI, that I came to love and live on “a little slice of the Island,” along with
my husband. And it is with these rich core experiences close to my heart that I make a conscious choice
to illustrate, through my work, the things which remind me of those earlier years on the Island. I attempt
to represent the Island’s rich connection to the sea and the fishing industry, it’s essential farming
heritage, and, after essential research, the wildlife which is native to the Province.
I thank you for your interest in my art work, and welcome you to join me on my journey as I rediscover
the places, experiences, and native species that make this Island such a special place.
