The Peggy-Sue Project started when Peggy Schollenberg asked Susan Whitney if she wanted to paint a picture together.
“Who gets to take the painting home tonight?” Whitney asked with a laugh.
The two women were taking classes from Michael Schutte at the Academy of Fine Art in French Creek. It was there that they said they honed in their skills.
The Peggy-Sue Project is a series of original oil painted diptychs, but with a twist, according to the women.
A diptych is a painting made up of two separate pieces and displayed side-by-side. According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of a diptych was in 1622.
However, Whitney said from her knowledge diptychs are generally painted by one artist.
“None that I know of have done diptychs cooperatively,” Whitney said.
The process, Whitney said, is her and Schollenberg get together and come up with an idea and start together working on the horizon lines, so it lines up.
Then they mix the paint so the colours match, Whitney said, and they take their pieces home and work on it separately.
But Schollenberg added that even though they paint independently, they get together and make adjustments on their pieces as necessary.
“If you think you’re finished with your side and then you put them side-by-side and they don’t match someone’s got to do something,” Schollenberg said.
Whitney said there’s no “bossing around” though.
“It requires a lot of cooperation, patience, a sense of humour — which we both have a lot of — and no ego,” Whitney said.
Whitney and Schollenberg’s diptychs will be on display at Ohhh So Yummy Café (129 Second Ave., West, Qualicum Beach) starting June 8. The café is open Wednesday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.