Artists of 2023
Teresa Walker
Floral & Nature Photographer
Teresa ventured into the world of photography following retirement from the University of Waterloo. The opportunity to live in Vancouver for a few years sparked a passion for photography. The amazing array of plants that grow in the lower mainland, exquisite gardens & endless nature trails became my outdoor studio.
Her work has been on display at Waterloo Region art galleries, cafés, local garden centres, juried art exhibitions & at the University of Waterloo. Teresa is an active member of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art [CAPA] & the Grand River Imaging & Photographic Society [GRIPS]. Over the past several years, she has received several awards at both the national & local levels. Additionally, Teresa had an article published in the Spring, 2020 & Spring, 2023 edition of Canadian Camera Magazine, the official publication of CAPA.
Getting out into nature is good for the soul, whether you are a child seeing things for the first time, or an adult making new memories and remembering special moments. Her nature photography captures the innate beauty & complexity of the subject & asks you to look deeper into its world. Spend some time to discover the allure & intricacy of nature’s creations. She hopes that her work will draw you in and leave you with a sense of calm & wonderment.
Contact Information:
https://www.teresawalkerphotography.com
Teresa21Walker@gmail.com
Facebook: @teresawalkerphotography
Instagram: @teresa21walker
Joyce Young
Acrylic Art
As a distraction from the pandemic of 2020-Joyce started viewing and researching different acrylic techniques on line. As a self taught artist with a love of colour, design and nature she started creating her own pieces with a result of having her own art show in 2021. She was encouraged and invited to be part of the 2022 NHAT and now looks forward to another show this fall.
Contact Information:
iamjoy8@gmail.com
Josephine Czech
Painter
Josephine works primarily in oil paint, creating landscapes and still life pieces reflecting the world around her. Some of her favourite inspiration comes from the tangled weeds and wildflowers at the edge of fields, billowing clouds, or the lichen growing on Northern rocky shores.
She also has also been recently exploring imagined scenes, often taking place in a forgotten forest, secret garden, or abandoned pool.
Contact Information:
joczech@gmail.com
Instagram: @josephineczech
joczech.etsy.com
Judy Gascho-Jutzi
Textile Artist
A lifelong sewer, from clothing to custom interior design work, quilting and fibre art, Judy's passion for her textile art comes from a love of colour, fabrics, fibres and a strong connection to nature. Several of her commissioned realistic 3d landscapes, in her distinctive style have been accepted into juried exhibitions and are seen world wide. She is known for her trunk shows, workshops, charitable quilting endeavours and welcoming new commissions.
Contact Information:
Kathleen Freeman
Painter
Kathleen Freeman is a painter. Her preferred medium is acrylic paint on canvas. The scenery and wildlife in south western Ontario provides many of her favourite subjects. She paints a variety of birds and landscapes. On daily walks she is always on the look out for a possible painting.
She welcomes commissions for pet portraits. They make wonderful keepsakes or gifts for friends and family.
Contact Information:
Barbara McLeod
Painter
Barbara McLeod is a representational landscape artist residing in Southern Ontario. Her hometown is rich in local heritage landmarks that have provided her with much subject matter. Barbara is primarily a self-taught artist who is adept working in traditional oils or watercolour. Her subject matter primarily lies in interpreting landscapes – found in nature or rural/urban scenes.
As a member of several art associations, she advises that as an artist, it is always good to be part of a network that inspires creativity. She has attended numerous workshops over the years (many offered by COAA) and emphasizes that the instructors she has met have been instrumental in her development as an artist.
Much time is spent in the great outdoors painting from life. She is passionate about capturing the mood, emotion and beauty of nature on canvas. She has participated in numerous plein air events – proud to have received a Sponsor’s Award at Paint Ontario in 2022 and the Best Urban Scene Award at the Perch n’ Paint Event in Grand Bend in 2021 and 2022.
She hopes the viewer enjoys her work as much as she does creating it!
Contact Information:
Michele Brenneman
Watercolour and Acrylic Painter
Michelle has been creating something as long as she can remember whether it was drawing or painting on paper or other items. She enjoyed art when she was in school, however when she started a family - art took a back seat, however she was still creating just in other ways. Michelle loves being in nature whether it is hiking or kayaking and loves taking lots of photos for her own reference. She has been painting mainly in Watercolour and Acrylic. What Michelle loves about water colour is that it can resemble nature - it is very organic and you have to be ok with how things end up working with that medium. Its much like nature - you see what is there but it is not always predictable as to what the final outcome may be.
Contact Information:
mdbrenneman03@gmail.com
Instagram: @MicheleBrenneman
Earla Boyd
Mix Media Artist
Earla Boyd is a New Hamburg resident who “plays” with various art media. Experimenting with oils, acrylics, inks and graphite has resulted in some interesting outcomes. For this artist, it is the process of creating which is fulfilling.
Contact Information:
Cornelia LeRoux
Painter
Cornelia Leroux loves to explore colour in her paintings of North American and African animals. A wide selection of her paintings are available in prints and stickers.
Contact Information:
Dixi le Roux
Mixed Media Artist
“Impressionism means the total impression of the eye and soul, a fleeting instant in time which is caught on canvas, the atmosphere, the colour, the light”. Her technique is a happy mixture of Impressionism and contemporary paint applications. She seldom comments or reflects on social trends or values. Her art is pure happiness.
I am a farm girl at heart who loves to explore cities. Flowers and trees speak to my soul and heart, and my feet are always yearning for faraway places. These are reflected in my art. Even though I mainly paint with acrylics, I do like to explore the possibilities of different mediums and methods. For me, art is the freedom to express, freedom to explore, and the joy of an explosion of colours.
Contact Information:
Instagram: @dixi_art1
Donna Schyff
Stained Glass & Textile Artist
Donna has done stained glass for over 40 years. Copper foil and leaded.
For many years she has quilted and then joined the Grand Guild of fiber artists, where she has expanded her work to silk and cotton landscapes. They are inserted into the drawers from old treadle sewing machine drawers.
Contact Information:
ripper1949@hotmail.com
Nick Fuller
Painter
Nick Fuller has always been a lover of the arts, whether its culinary, martial, or musical but- his real love is painting. Nick loves the tangible, tactile nature of painting. He loves that when he finishes a painting, it is concrete and will be preserved for many people (including his kids) to enjoy for years into the future!.
Nick is primarily self-taught and has been drawing and painting for his own personal pleasure since he was a child. But more recently, in the last few years, he has approached the craft more seriously. Nick works in oils but has just recently began exploring the “mischtechnik” (a blend of egg tempera and oil, popularized by Ernst Fuchs) and he has been discovering some very exciting results. Nick’s work is mainly inspired by surrealist painters and the vsionary art movement. He hopes it inspires people to consider their nature beyond their “little selves” and he also like to give homage to the great people of humanity. He is inspired and encouraged by the works of Ernst Fuchs, Max Ernst, Maxfield Parish and Johfra.
Contact Information:
Simona Zac
Contemporary Abstract Artist
Simona Zac is a self-taught contemporary artist. Being a self-taught and self-represented artist gives Simona the freedom and proficiency to express herself and evolve through her own personal experience. Her fearless approach to painting involves experimentation with different styles, techniques and mediums including graphite, ink, watercolor, oil and acrylic paint. She loves to balance unique colors, movement, energy and texture.
Simona has exhibited in local venues throughout Waterloo region including the Box 13 Art Show and Sale, Globe Studios and has won the Juror's Selection award for the CIGI Community Art Contest.
To Simona painting is like a dance. The movement of color and light harmoniously come together in a breathtaking performance.
Simona continues to "dance" with new techniques and mediums, preferring to mainly paint in acrylic and oil, inspired by her artist's intuition and youthful imagination.
Most recently Simona has partnered with local potters, Little Lake Pottery to produce The Painter and the Potter series where clay, color and design collide. Simona’s experimentation on canvas of balancing unique colors, movement and texture is translated onto clay, resulting in beautiful collaborations of pottery pieces that are each uniquely different.
Contact Information:
SZac Art Studio - www.etsy.com/ca/shop/SZacArtStudio
s.zac.art@gmail.com
Linda Sanderson
Handweaver
Ever since her first exposure to handweaving and its related fibre arts, Linda has been “entangled” by fibre. After almost twenty years of weaving, she continues to find that weaving offers endless opportunities for creativity in combining colour, structure, and design.
Linda’s primary inspiration is colour, and her preferred materials are those offered by nature – natural fibres obtained from plant and animal, such as wool, mohair, silk, alpaca, cotton, and linen. They have endured for centuries because of the comfort and luxury they offer. However, she also like to explore the new “eco fibres” that are developing, such as tencel and bamboo, both for their own fine qualities, as well as for the economic and sustainable alternatives they offer.
Linda has taken numerous workshops and courses in diverse techniques such as doubleweave, tapestry weaving, collapse weave, inkle weaving, hand manipulated lace, ikat, shibori, and warp paintng and am currently working toward the Certificate of Hand Weaving and the ultimate designation of Master Weaver offered by the Ontario Hand Weavers and Spinners Association.
Contact Information:
lindasanderson001@gmail.com
Mary Garet
Painter & Multimedia Artist
Mary is usually focused on equestrian art but she also loves to paint other meaningful subjects. She considers her art to be Contemporary Realism but moments of abstract, minimalist and pop art concepts can often be seen in her work. Hers is an illustrative style, with emphasis on emotions and aspects of a subject’s character that help to reveal their stories.
In 2018, Mary Garet left busy mid-town Toronto behind and moved to rural Wilmot, Ontario. Amidst rolling farmland and small communities she found breathing space, and with that came stronger connections to her life-long passions: working daily and directly with horses, and creating artwork that reflects aspects of the equine character.
Perhaps because she is also a writer, Mary has always been drawn to making art that tells a story. She has studied with many excellent artists and also has grown her art practice through self-directed learning. In 2012, for example, she joined the Toronto Chapter of Urban Sketchers which added architectural and human-interest sketching experience to her toolkit and which now informs her storytelling images.
Mary strives to create moment-in-time artworks that have emotional resonance with her audience. She created the “Invisible Communication” project in 2023 to be a series of artworks that focus on visual, emotional stories. Many will help to define the human-horse bond, but Mary refuses to restrict inspiration. Non-equine subjects may appear!”
Contact Information:
garetcreative@gmail.com
Website: marygaret.art
Instagram: @marygaretart
Facebook: Mary Garet Art
Morag Webster
Multimedia Artist, Painter & Sculptor
An early interest in drawing evolved into a quest for expression in a variety of media including painting in oil, watercolours and pastel, as well as forays into the production of sculpture using various materials. This drive has also lead her to work as a theatre and film technician, a scenic painter, props and sets builder.
She is also an accomplished portrait painter. Completing numerous portrait commissions and has appeared on the television show, “Star Portraits”, as an award winning portrait artist.
Involvement in community affairs has always been important to Morag: she has served on the WBCA board, Toronto, past boardmember of the Forest City Gallery ( FCG), TAP (London), Open Air 2001 ( McIntosh Gallery) and various community theatres. She was a founding member of the Elliot Lake Arts Council, is past-president of the Burlington Fine Arts Guild, and has been involved with Fringe Nord, SCARF (Sudbury). She is presently a member of American Portrait Artist Society and Artists in Canada, Button Factory Arts Waterloo, The Street Painting Society, IATSE 828 and 873.
Contact Information:
Website: moragart.com
Facebook: Morag Webster Fine Art
Instagram: Morag Webster
moragarts@gmail.com
Greg Kimmett
Painter
Greg has been sketching, drawing, painting and creating for many years. He has a passion for fine art renderings in pencil but also in colored pencil, watercolor, acrylic and oils.
Wildlife is his favorite subject - but not the only one.
If you go to his website or social media pages, you can lose yourself in fine art sketches, paintings, movie fan art, legendary musicians and comic book style renderings.
There's something for everyone.
Contact Information:
Website: www.theartofgregkimmett.com
Instagram: the.artofgregkimmett
Facebook: the Art of Greg Kimmett
Tami Martin
Photographer
Tami is a photographer. While she dabbles in portraiture, her true passion lies in wildlife, nature, and landscape photography. Together, her compositions and editing serve to highlight the romantic simplicity of the natural world we live in. Most of her photos are created while hiking and camping throughout the province.
Tami lives in Elmira and has called it home the majority of her life where she works full time as a commercial painter. She completed the Digital Photography program at Georgian College in Barrie.
Contact Information:
Website: www.etsy.com/ca/shop/TMartinPhoto
Instagram: _tami.martin
Facebook: tamimartinphotographer
TamiMartin.Photography@live.ca
Linda Chamberland
Painter, Acrylic on Canvas
Linda is a 38 year-old resident of Wellesley, Ontario. She has two children and works full time. Linda has always been inspired by the wildness of Canadian nature. From her explorations of this country, she has seen limitless inspirations of beauty. Linda attempts to capture this in an impressionist style on canvas. Her works are all original from her travels or from commissioned pieces of other peoples’ travels. Our amazing country has so much to offer: calmness, grandeur, humility, and ruggedness. Art brings her peace and allows her to express my creativity.
Contact Information:
Facebook: Linda's Fine Art
l_chamberland@hotmail.com
Nancy Taves
Painter
Nancy Taves is a self taught Canadian Realist painter living in small town Ontario. After a successful career with Bell Canada, retirement allowed new opportunities and time to persue her passion to paint. Working mostly in oils and acrylics, she finds inspiration in everyday life and beauty all around her. You will always find a painting on her easel in her home studio, but she can also be seen set up in the great outdoors, en plein air, capturing the colours, lights, and shadows of rural life. As an avid Bruce Trail hiker, many of her paintings depict the beauty and serenity of scenes not otherwise viewed.
Nancy is an active member of the Kitchener Waterloo Society of Artists and the Central Ontario Art Association. Her work has shown and sold in local galleries and has been juried into shows at the Homer Watson Gallery, Minto Gallery, and the Art District Gallery
Contact Information:
Website: www.nancytavesfineart.com
Facebook: @ntavesfineart
ntavesfineart@gmail.com
Amanda Lundrigan
Floral & Nature Photographer
Amanda’s love of flowers and nature started at a young age when her grandmother taught her to plant her very first flower garden at age 4. Since then Amanda continued gardening and as she got older and interested in photography, she began capturing beautiful photographs of the flowerbeds she tended.
With her photography, Amanda strives to capture the everyday beauty nature has to offer through her floral and landscape photographs. Her collection includes subject matter ranging from spring flowers, summer sunsets, fall colored forests and magic waves on her favorite beaches.
Amanda currently resides in Stratford, Ontario but has a camera in hand wherever she goes.
Contact Information:
Website: alfineartphotography.com
Facebook: @alfineartphotography
Instagram: @alfineartphotography
alfineartphotography@gmail.com
Jan Cressman-Weiss
Painter
Jan Cressman-Weiss lives on 2 acres of land which is part of the farm she grew up on. Jan loves landscapes and gardening, which can be seen in her paintings. Her work is mostly in acrylics and is available for purchase at My Place Restaurant, downtown New Hamburg, 96 Huron Street.
Contact Information: