Arts and Entertainment

Erin artist finds inspiration in farm life, miniature donkeys and barn quilts

June 4, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“I was born and raised in Mississauga,” said artist Deborah McLachlan in an interview with the Citizen. “But I always wanted to live on a farm. So, my husband bought me a farm near Erin.”

A happy story that brought her to a place where her passion for painting landscapes has a scene that is appealing. She reckons there are levels of art that lead to fine art, which she defines as “creativity from the heart. It comes from within and that is a gift.”

She added, with the pleasure her farm residence provides, that “the landscape looking out your window might make you want to replicate it.”

With any work of art, she maintains, the attraction to create is simply, “you know when you know” that you have to create that picture. It speaks to you. Something in the landscape draws you in.

Her preferred method of painting is dry-brush watercolour. This is a technique that blends watercolour in a brush that has been squeezed, carefully wiped on tissue or in other ways, it has its water reduced, but not all at once. The painting takes on a layered effect with multiple degrees of how dry the brush is.

Done well, the dry brush can draw delicate lines like a pen or pencil, but with its own particular touch.

“With very little water on the brush and more pigment, I can make very fine strokes,” McLachlan explained her love of the method, preferring the dry brush technique for its concentrated detailing – a blade of grass at a time, as it were.

It often adds an atmosphere to the painting, almost a dream element, with the very broad range of textures that can be created.
McLachlan likes to do a lot of equine art. She loves horses for their great spirit, gracefulness and for how they inspire her. Her own horse, Sam, now somewhat elderly by equine standards, is still valued company.

She also breeds miniature donkeys, meaning 35 inches to their withers is the standard that defines miniature.

In addition to the joy of raising the little donkeys, they are bred to sell, and they do very well. Apparently, people like them so much because “they are really, really cute.” Totally different from a horse, of course, so different are they that McLachlan noted people often compare them to dogs in their personalities and affectionate demeanour.

Within her own family are her husband, Mike and their two adult children, both of whom are successful in their own lives. Mike sells electrical equipment to construction companies. Their son is in the automotive industry, and their daughter works in interior design, and she is also a photographer.

McLachlan herself took early retirement as a teacher and went on to work with students in a co-op.

She said, “I found co-op very rewarding. To see students excel at the work place. In the end they could go on to the phase of their lives in industry.”

Going back to her life in art, McLachlan mentioned that she paints barn quilts, too and talked about her making barn quilts.

Tied to the realm of folk art, barn quilts are cousins to the traditional quilt, which is warm on a bed, decorative on a couch, or elsewhere in the home. That quilt is made from cloth, but a barn quilt is made from wood. The decorative traditions are maintained, but how the wooden quilts are placed is outside on barn walls, on all sorts of walls. They make a statement of loyalty to the many classical motifs and the creativity of the artist to follow and even take personal spins on historically loved patterns.

Actually, there are Barn Quilt Trails all around Ontario, the largest of which is in Prince Edward County, where 100 barn quilts tempt a traveller to follow them.

Closer to home are the Barn Quilt Trails of Horseshoe Valley, or in Simcoe County.

“As a child, I was always drawing,” McLachlan said. “And I did some courses at Sheridan College.”

Her irresistible impulse to create really flourished once she was home on her farm.

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