An excerpt from an interview by Jackie Hayes of the local newspaper in 1992 after receiving the Octoberfest senior women of the year award-
At 47, she joined a friend in taking art lessons at a Montreal convent and one of her first charcoal drawings still hangs in her home.
“I was very nervous the first day.” Duretta said. “I had never been with nuns and never held a piece of charcoal in my hands. Those sisters were simply wonderful teachers.”
She painted in oils then, but now uses watercolours which “are easier to work with, though more difficult to rectify if you made an error.”
Each Christmas , she delights her friends with a personal hand-painted card and greeting, and many of her paintings had been sold to raise funds for charity, particularly the Working Centre.
In the 90’s, Duretta gave us an oil painting for a house warming gift and would come over and clean it. She had learned how to clean oil paintings from the nuns at the Ville-Marie convent in Montreal with a sliced onion. As she was cleaning it, an image of a man in a canoe appeared that was hidden in years of dirt and grime.
Below is a very small sampling of her art, most have been given away or sold for charity, her favorites were the food bank and St. John’s Kitchen
The Wolfhards 