Rosemary Leach celebrates life's crooked lines and unpolished objects found in everyday life. A dented colander, old lamp, scuffed kettle and well-used ladder are brought to life through Leach's bold palette, loose brushwork and quirky compositions.

The road for Leach has not been an easy one. It has taken years to shrug off feelings of inadequacy, a difficult childhood and a yearning to find peace. She feels she is turning the corner and is set to begin a new chapter in her life.

"I've been on a long internal journey. I looked at my parents and was terrified of leading a vacuous life. I've felt like an alien in my own life."

The Almonte artist is making a name for herself throughout the province and beyond. When she had a recent art show at the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, she sold many pieces to visitors from as far away as England and California.

Ottawa's Koyman Gallery, one of Canada's largest galleries, which represents 150 artists, carries several original works as does the Gallery Perth and Palms in Almonte. She has exhibited at several art-in-the-park events in Ottawa, the Toronto Art Show and various restaurants in the city. She enjoys meeting the people who purchase her work and is holding a show in one client's home in Kingston on Oct. 23. "My work sells well because it's accessible to people."

Leach's home sits on a peaceful, tree-lined street in Almonte. It's an active household with a tire swing dangling from a tree on the front lawn and a basketball and hockey net on the driveway, a pop-up trailer nearby.

Leach and her husband, journalist, science writer and playwright Jacob Berkowitz, moved to the 1860, five-bedroom home five years ago from the village of Clayton. The two both work from home -- he has an office tucked away on the second floor, while Leach is on the main level.

A self-confessed foodie, Leach's bright, airy studio is just off the kitchen at the back of the house so she can sometimes paint and keep an eye on a family meal at the same time.

Sunlight from the studio's soaring windows sweeps across the space. Three easels hold paintings-in-progress. It is not uncommon for Leach to juggle several pieces at the same time, transferring a particular colour on the end of her brush into different scenes.

"I have a catalogue in my head and know, for example, that painting No. 3 needs this colour and so does painting No. 5."

Leach is inspired by simple settings and other people's homes -- especially sinks, kitchens and well-worn steps. One of her favourite subjects is views through an open window. She tries to take at least one solo retreat a year where she can fill her brain with snapshots of images to file away and later paint.

"I was inspired to paint kids' boots in a hallway after visiting a friend's house. I love messy sinks, empty chairs, flowers in a pretty vase at a café. I also really like things that shouldn't go together, but do. Like something new sitting beside an antique."

After years of struggling with self-doubt, the pretty, petite Leach is finally finding some contentment in life.

She grew up in an academic, "dysfunctional" family in Toronto. Her father worked on Bay Street and her mother stayed home. Art was a constant theme in the Leach household: Her grandfather was an architect; her mother and siblings dabbled in painting and pottery and she was surrounded by artists at the family's cottage in Pointe Au Baril on Georgian Bay.

"While we loved art, it was meant to be a hobby, not a career."

Since it was considered unreasonable to be an artist in her family, Leach attended teacher's college at Queen's University and later taught high school English in Owen Sound.

For years and still to this day, Leach has been dogged by feelings of wanting to please her family on one hand, but realizing that by doing so she was making herself more and more unhappy. When she felt she "couldn't hold herself together anymore," she quit teaching and applied to Oakville's Sheridan College and enrolled in courses in pottery and illustration.

"It took a lot of intense therapy to get to where I am now. Painting is the balm of my soul and has allowed me to find peace. I find life difficult and am always trying to find what is comfortable."

Even when she decided to become a full-time painter, she struggled with how she would fit into that world.

"Being in the art world felt foreign to me. I wasn't sure how I was going to fit in."

For several years, Leach taught art workshops at the Nepean Creative Arts Centre and MASC (Multicultural Arts for Schools and Communities), as well as running her own workshops from her home. But for now, Leach is concentrating solely on her craft and raising her son Max and daughter Frankie. She credits her husband for his support.

"Jake is really inspirational. He's not afraid to put himself out there on a limb. When he was offered his dream job at the Museum

of Nature, he called me and said he wasn't taking it. He wanted to be a writer."

When Leach's mom died four years ago of cancer, she realized the fragility of life and knew that she wanted to spend hers painting.

"I'm still critical of my work, but I'm going to put myself out there. We only get one kick at the can. I've learned to work with, not against, myself."

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Almonte: Sept. 23-25: Rosemary Leach's home, 255 William St. Vernissage, Thursday Sept. 23, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 24, 4-7 p.m.; and Saturday Sept. 25, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Kingston: Oct. 24, 3681 Princess St., hosted by Alison Pinkerton, 7 to 9 p.m.

Almonte: Thursday, Oct. 28, Fitzgerald Gallery Heritage Court, 14 Mill St., 7 p.m to 10 p.m.

Ottawa: Nov. 1 to Nov. 30.

The Wild Oat, 817 Bank St.