iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

This scene was one of those moments I knew I had to paint. I hope my father would have liked it. “Portrait of a cobbler who could have been a General”, oil on canvas, 24”x36”, private collection, Burlington, Ontario.🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Mum & I were in the grip of his recent passing, & I was exhausted, having driven 6,000 kms across the country in a week. We were processing the labyrinth of his complicated life, and treading water in its wake.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I knew it would be there because he was careful and took pride in maintaining it. It was indeed unloaded and I found it just as you see it.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

When I arrived back from the Yukon after his passing, my mom, also in a wheelchair and starting to really show the dementia which was progressing, told me the shotgun was in his bed. I knew it would be unloaded. He practiced excellent firearm safety.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I don’t post this painting often because it’s a heavy one, and very personal. When my father passed away he had been cleaning this shotgun in his bed (he was very unwell at the time and had chronic illnesses for the majority of his life).

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Portraits are truly about the eyes. Even if you don’t begin the painting with your subject’s eyes, they are paramount. A painting where they eyes don’t work is like a poorly made house: it can shelter you, but drafts will get in. “Benny Sue in the cream dress”, oil, 20”x16”, priv coll. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful”~e.e. cummings “Interwoven, (North of Ontario)”, oil on canvas, 18”x24”, private collection, Hamilton, Ontario. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“I have done things according to the design of my heart… ”~Hatshepsut, as translated by James Henry Breasted in ‘Ancient Records of Egypt’ “Hatshepsut”, oil on panel, 72”x48”, private collection. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

At the end of the day I want to paint the end of that day. 🩵 “The Loft”, oil on panel, 6”x4”, private collection, Southampton, NY.🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Stopped in to see Abbozzo Gallery’s beautiful new space last week. Check their link in their bio @ pop by their new digs in The Junction in Toronto! I’ll be having my next solo exhibition there next autumn,marking 20 yrs since my 1st exhibition with them! www.abbozzogallery.com/artist/heath...

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

“You do not have to be a fire for every mountain blocking you. You could be a water and soft river your way to freedom too.” ~Nayyirah Waheed The development for “The Wall”, from my Pasadena exhibition ‘Immersion’ in 2022. I love the buoyancy & upward motion. 🩵 “The Wall”, 60”x48”, priv coll, 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Ravens are ebon’s exemplar. They are an inquisitive mystery, a quest with wings. “The Corvid”, oil, 48”x36”, private collection. 🖤

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.” “There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you; and here’s some for me.” ~W Shakespeare, ‘Hamlet’ “Columbina”, oil, 40”x30”, private coll. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

When you tone the ground but can’t wait for it to dry. 🩵 Working on a second new piece concurrent with the Rorschach one. Normally I want for the under layer to dry but I couldn’t help myself. Trying to keep the colours calm but vibrant. More updates soon :-)

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

“The city was the world, and the world was the city.”-Anaïs Nin “Uzès Street”, oil on canvas, 40”x 60”, private collection.🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The joy of illuminating practices. This 12”x24” oil on panel continues to deepen and evolve while listening to coverage of the Lindsay Clancy trial.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Finished! “Amy, Cobalt”, oil on panel, 24”x12”, available. 💙 I love the tone that close cropping can create. Sometime the edges of a canvas can is a sky and sometimes it’s a small room.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Art is the pain from fallout transformed. “Self portrait, fugue”, oil on panel, 4”x4”, private collection, Almonte, Ontario. ❤️🇨🇦

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

New painting, who dis? 🙃 Working on this new 12”x24” piece that reminds me of a Rorschach test. What do you see? Untitled so far, working on this weekend. It’s so lovely to be feeling a bit better and able to get more hours in at the easel!💛

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Echoes in this beautiful essay below of how I felt in during & after a two year sojourn in The Yukon, painting in my tiny cabin with my tiny cat. Those eternal smudge-pink dawns and dusks. 🤍

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“People talk about us being in the darkness. Yes, we are the mole people. We live in the darkness. But it’s the light that we love.”~Jeanine Basinger As a painter, I’m always looking for the light or at it, and if I can’t find it, I create it. “David’s Studio,Sunset”, oil, 36”x48”, priv coll.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“From now on let’s seek the gentle light.” Vincent Van Gogh to Theo. “Self portrait, temple”, 16”x20”, oil on panel, private collection. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I always come away from time spent with Dr Paige Wilcoxson feeling inspired, stronger, smarter, more curious about the human psyche, and how and why we are who we are. 🧠

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

“No longer mad like a horse I’m still wild, but not lost From the thing that I’ve chosen to be And it’s ‘cause you’ve thrilled me Silenced me, stilled me Proved things I never believed, oh The face on you The smell of you Will always be with me” ~Sinéad O’Connor Music & art therapy. Touchstones❤️

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

“We set foot on the land of the Lotus-eaters, who eat a flowery food.”~Homer, The Odyssey “The Lotus Eater”, oil on panel, 48”x72”, private collection. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

We are always in the process of becoming. Nothing is truly static, ever, including paintings, which are generally pretty still. Yet even a painting is forever in one moment of its existence, and what a delight it is to be a part of that. ❤️ “The Shieldmaiden”, oil, 8”x8”, priv coll,Almonte,Ontario.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

And sold!! 🔴 “The Shed”, oil on panel, 40”x30”, private collection. Keyholes of light in the darkness are like second paintings contained within them. “Fishing Stage, Fogo Island”, oil on panel, 40”x30”, private collection. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

“Come away little light Come away to the darkness In the shade of the night we’ll come looking for you Come away little light Come away to the darkness To the ones appointed to see it through” ~Glen Hansard, ‘Come Away To The Water’ “The Wall”, oil on panel, 60”x48”, private collection, Colorado.🩵

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

“Amy, Cobalt”, oil on panel, 24”x12”, is continuing to evolve. I’m having a lot of fun jumping into different blues and the recipe of hues that this dress contains peeps of Prussian, a wink of Phthalo, a soothing of French Ultramarine, a warmth of Manganese and of course, Cobalt:)

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

The moment you fill your lungs and are lifted by water, feeling your toes leave the ground of wherever you happen to be and your limbs arabesque upward..that is flying. “The Virago”, oil on panel, 40”x60”, private collection, Florida, USA.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

There are few things cooler than having your art your be on a cover of a fellow artist’s creations.🩵 Thank you to Sam Peralta, Rebecca Pert and the publishers involved in selecting my work for these covers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry!

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

When your work returns to you it’s the most amazing reunion. I’m so happy to have “Fregatten Jylland”, oil, 30”x30”, back in our lives again! This is my father’s model ship he was building when he passed away. I like to think painting it was a way to help him finish it. ❤️

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Artists are all chasers of light. “Through a glass lightly”, oil on panel, 12”x24”, private collection. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Currently in progress! “Amy, Cobalt”, oil on panel, 24”x12”. I’m trying to play more with constrained cropping in compositional planning. I like when the parameters of the canvas become a voice in the narration.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” ~Alan Watts “The Chameleon”, oil on panel, 30”x30”, private collection, Malibu, CA. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.” ~Isak Dinesen. 🌊🩵🌊 “Looking down to the Nicholsons’, 5:30am”, oil on panel, 36”x48”, available via Abbozzo Gallery. www.abbozzogallery.com/art/5668925

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Happy Canada Day! 🇨🇦❤️ What a treat to spend some of it with my bestie Wyll in Victoria, BC!Plus a serendipitous coffee table book which inspires! “Kensington Palette”, oil on panel, 14”x11”, private collection.🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Tomorrow a reunion with magical being and friend of a lifetime Wyll. Here’s a favourite painting of her from awhile back.Wishing you a heart-filled day!❤️ “Wyll, Madison Avenue”, oil on panel, 11”x14”, private collection. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Hopes, dreams, realities, focus, lack of focus, meditation, mediation; all of these moments can be found on one’s palette. And sold! “Spring Journal”, oil on panel, 8”x6”, private collection.🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

To the left. It cannot be seen from this angle.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

“Felicia, Liminal”, and “Filigree”, both oil on panel, have a new forever home! In fact you can see 2 other paintings of mine in these photos: The “Berrypicker, Greenspond” & “Danielle, Afloat”:) I’m so honoured to have these paintings now be a part of this wonderful family’s collection! 🩷

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

“The whole answer is there on the canvas.” ~Edward Hopper “Woman in shower”, oil on canvas, 40”x30”, private collection. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

New painting complete! “L5-S1”, oil on panel, 9”x12”, available. This painting touches on the experience of having decompression and fusion spinal surgery a few years ago. 🩵

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

MAKE ME A BED IN THE CROOK OF YOUR ARM I’LL PROTECT YOU FROM SORROW, WORRY OR HARM YOU CAN LAY DOWN YOUR HEAD WITHOUT CARE; I SEE IN THE DARK “Messages in Bottles”, both oil, both 6”x6”, & “Sasha, Sun”,both in private collections.🔴🐾

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I’m smitten with where friends have hung this poster from my first solo exhibition back in 2007 at @abbozzogallery! Those barn doors are yummy & I’m so happy that this special moment is in their lives. Thank you both for sharing this!🩵 “Laura, Stool”, oil,48”x36”, private collection, Ontario.

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Annnd finished! “Want-sabi”, oil on board, 24”x12”, and detail. And a pic of the artist in situ :)

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

“Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”~Margaret Atwood “What the water gave me”, oil on panel. 36”x48”, private collection, Whitehorse, Yukon. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I seek out painting subjects which are sometimes indirect; where a person was, the sun on the floor of a room recently occupied, things wrapped in memory. I think at the end of the day I like painting the presence found in absence. “Where you lay waiting”, oil, 30”x40”, priv coll. 🔴

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

“The Artist and her Familiar”, oil on panel, 6”x6”, has a beautiful new home! Such wonderful memories behind this painting, and I’m so glad it has traveled from one family of caring collectors to another. 🥲🩵🥰

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Heather Horton @heatherhorton.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

“Wabi-sabi” continues to develop. Oil on panel, 24”x12”. 🩵

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