Leystone Farms threw the barn doors open on November 5 as part of the Luskville Christmas Farm Hop and they had something special to celebrate over and above the Hop itself: the artistry of their artist-in-residence, Noémie L. Côté.

The Equity was on hand at the same farm almost exactly one year ago for the introduction of Noémie and the joint venture undertaken between herself and Leystone owners, Karri and Trefor Munn-Venn, who purchased their property a stone’s throw from the base of the Eardley Escarpment in Luskville back in 2020.

You might ask: what exactly is an artist-in-residence? Trefor clarifies that “It’s more a . . .

category than a title – Noémie doesn’t live at the farm.” He continued, “We wanted to offer an artist the opportunity to partner with us and be consistently focused on helping bring to life their artistic impression of the concept of our core value here at the farm: nurture. And we chose Noémie because we felt she got us – what we were trying to do here – and we felt her work was consistent with our notion of nurture.”

There was perfect timing in Trefor’s introduction of Noémie and her theme in that he had to compete with the crowing of a rooster some 40 feet away. “It’s interesting what you accustom yourself to with public speaking when you live on a farm.” For those listening, it was as if the rooster was providing testimonial to the theme.

Trefor spoke first of his and Karri’s growing understanding of ‘nurture’ in their own lives at the farm. “The requirement for nurture is everywhere with the obvious ones being soil, plants, and animals. When it came to the more subtle areas of community, relationships and self, we fell upon the reality that the arts are essential.”

And thus was born the residency filled this past year by Noémie.

Noémie is a joyful bundle of radiance, not unlike the paintings she stands amongst. Her laugh is genuine and easy, and she is delighted to engage about all aspects of her artistry, the residency or pretty much any other topic you might have ready. There is a lovely innocence about her and she is surprised by her own celebrity: “That’s amazing! It’s the first time someone researched me and I feel so special, thank you.”

For her part, Noémie loved being the artist-in-residence. “I was able to come to this beautiful spot and what an inspiration it is.” While nurture has always been inherently present in her artistic output, Noémie added that coming to the farm and “having the space to think about what it is to nurture” afforded her a new perspective. “I was able to think and do outside of my normal, which is usually go-go-go.”

It is this perspective, the Nurture Art Exhibition, that we now witness in her output from one year of focusing on Leystone Farms and nurture.

Leystone Farms is known for many things, among them: wool, chickens, honey and, without a doubt, grapes. It is, after all, a vineyard. And it is this last which became the primary focus for Noémie on her sourcing of what it means to nurture. “I witnessed Trefor working really hard – happily working really hard – and it made me understand that we choose what we nurture.”

The output of her year in residency sees paintings of a variety of vineyards across Canada, focusing primarily on Leystone Farms, KIN Vineyard in Carp, Ontario, and several locations in Kelowna, British Columbia. “We have manmade vines that we choose to nurture, set amongst mother nature – we have trees, mountains, lakes, flowers – and these are the two elements I have chosen visually for this collection.”

Noémie’s style is one she calls open-impressionist, a term coined by American artist Erin Hanson. It is best described as “abstracted, contemporary impressionism” and involves “loose and expressive brush strokes conveying a sense of movement and transient light.” The paint is applied in one thick impasto layer as opposed to the classic tradition of multiple thin layers where each is allowed to dry before applying another. “With the classic technique, it could take a year to make a single painting,” Noémie exclaimed.

Specifically, Noémie sketches in pencil and then in India ink, smears and then wipes a uniform undercoat corresponding to the “temperature” of her painting, premixes her entire palette of oil colours and then, finally, paints. The process takes about one week. Drying time adds another several months.

Looking at the various interpretations of nurture presented in the many paintings of uniform rows of grapes is to ingest visually that which is implied by the scene: an exquisite blending of nature and craft.

One moment unlikely to be forgotten by either the Munn-Venns or Noémie was the opening by Noémie of a bottle of the first crafted white wine from Leystone’s own vineyard sporting a label with her very first piece of art inspired by thoughts of nurture thanks to being the artist-in-residence; opening one byproduct of sustained nurture while standing amongst permanent representations thereof.

More information about Leystone Farms can be found at www.fermesleystone.com and information on the Luskville Farm Hop can be found at www.luskville.farm-hop.com. Noémie’s art can be viewed via her website at www.noemielcote.com/ or at the Koyman Gallery in Ottawa, where she is represented locally. She is also very active on Instagram @noemielcote, and journeying there is worth your effort.

Vineyard and Farms, Oil on canvas, by artist-in-residence Noémie L. Côté.

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