Becky Striegler – Freeing the Spirit

Becky Striegler

Becky Striegler is a Canadian artist from the Yukon who spent the spring of 2025 in residence at Il Palmerino.

After graduating with a degree in journalism in 1982, Becky spent her career in an dynamic environment, working as a journalist, policy analyst, radio host and producer, interviewer and creative writer for almost 35 years. She continued writing, and began to explore art after her retirement in 2016.

Although she felt deep connection with the artistic forms of expression ever since she was a child, her creative voice began to emerge later in life. Her desire to spend a summer in Europe led to her attending various residency programs and courses through the years. Becky did art residencies in France in the summer of 2022 and winters of 2023 and 2024, where she focused on figure and portrait drawing, often based on the methods of Florence’s Renaissance masters. She worked on developing her technical and expressive skills with Studio Escalier, a private art school based in Paris and in the French countryside.

While in Paris, she enjoyed weekend painting sessions led by an artist who used oil pastels to paint the gardens of the city. The colours and textures were rich and emotive. Becky tried this technique and found it liberating. She felt confident to rely on her intuition and be spontaneous, making her painting a therapeutic experience.

Painting by Becky Streigler

“So often in life, I have ignored my instincts. Here, I’ve felt happy to follow them- to free the spirit- without worrying whether the result is good or bad.”

Coming from the far northwest of Canada, she found a completely different environment in Florence. In this atmosphere, she has created pastel paintings that represent delicate pieces of Il Palmerino’s experience, highlighting in that way the opportunity to find meaning and beauty in details. Drawn by the light and texture, her work expresses the transformation of the objective brought on by this large change of scenery. The artist captures ephemeral events of the Palmerino garden, such as unique shadows on nearly bloomed flowers, that perfectly describe the spirit of the place.

Painting by Becky Streigler

“One of my goals is to bring my Palmerino practice home: to use the Yukon as my garden and reach for my oil pastels while surrounded by the vastness of Yukon forest and water and mountains.”

In creating pastel works, Becky still thinks about composition, but her main focus is selecting a palette which will unify a sight she chooses to represent. Expression that comes from breaking learned rules creates very powerful works, using color as the main way of communicating an artist’s feelings, captured in one moment in the garden. Using oil pastels, as she has stated, makes her feel as free as a child playing with crayons or lipstick. Making a decision on color is crucial, given it is difficult to mix them, but even a choice that does not quite fit can lead to interesting results, creating an impression and feeling, rather than describing the sight. She still loves figure and portrait drawing, but calls it “a whole different exercise”.

Il Palmerino is proud to be the place where Becky Striegler had the opportunity to transform her artistic identity, creating paintings that vividly describe the nature that makes the place unique. We are excited to see where Becky’s journey will take her next!

Ksenija K.