Bette Belanger Plein airepainting in an impressionistic style
(Click an image for details and larger view)Bette Belanger
Gatineau based artist Bette Belanger has been honing her skills in observing and painting nature for over 20 years. Originally a Watercolourist, Bette has changed mediums to oil and works in an alla prima style. Her growth and development as an artist have come from her continual applied curiosity and exploration of painting. Bette is a self-taught artist and her work is predominantly plein aire.
She likes to explore the scenery of Georgian Bay where she grew up, along with the Outaouais and Ottawa area where she now lives. She often develops her smaller plein aire paintings into larger studio works.
Artist Statement
My art explores the rugged diversity found in the North American landscape in an impressionistic style. I use oils alla prima when painting en plein aire to keep the sketch fresh and immediate.
I find painting outdoors very addictive. The pursuit of capturing the landscape as you see it is always a struggle and challenge. I feel that this is translated to my work through my brush strokes. The light changes fast so you need to work quickly. Decipher the scene, compose it and paint. There is no time for anything else. I am driven to paint on a daily basis throughout the year.
When I am not painting outdoors I will develop my smaller sketches into larger studio works. Currently, my work is being exhibited at the Rothwell Gallery and Foyer Gallery, in Ottawa.
As a Mi’kmaq Derrick Hewitt comes from a family of artists, he works mostly in the native arts: moose and caribou hair Tufting, building inukshuks as well as making painted drums. Derrick has done videos for the Museum of Nature in Ottawa with hopes to preserve Tufting artistry for future generations. Doing Tuftings is a labour of love, it takes a lot of time and patience to complete each piece, likewise drum making is done in the traditional way Derrick learned as a Mi’kmaq.
Over the past 24 years as an artist Derrick has donated the majority of his work to charity in hopes to introduce people to the native culture in Canada. Derrick’s work has been purchased here in Canada and internationally as far away as Japan. Derrick sells his work online, at shows and does commission pieces.
Robert Reid Creating extreme levels of detail in his chosen subjects
(Click an image for details and larger view)
Robert Reid
Robert spent his career managing factories and manufacturing facilities in the Ottawa area and Nova Scotia. He is primarily a self-taught artist and has focused on visual art since 2013. He finds Artistic inspiration in many different subjects and mediums, including; Watercolor, Colored Pencil and Pyrography. His current mediums for creative focus are Scratchboards and Acrylic Painting.
He’s a member of ‘Arts Carleton Place’ and the ‘West Carleton Art Society’ as well as a past member of the ‘Manotick Arts Association’. He currently lives in Carp, Ontario and can be contacted through his website.
About the Art
Scratchboard is drawing with an Exacto blade and other sharp metal tools used to “Scratch” an image onto a particular board. This medium allows for extreme levels of detail in his chosen subjects. He is also creating Acrylic Paintings on various topics. Robert says, “I find both these mediums challenging but very satisfying to work in.”
You can see his work at various art shows throughout the year and on his social media.
Tamara H Campbell Creating a visual escape, a place to get lost in the details, colours, and textures
(Click an image for larger view and details)
Tamara Campbell is an emerging abstract artist, working primarily in mixed media. She lives about an hour west of Ottawa, tucked away in the woods, near the village of Burnstown. Tamara has experimented with art since her childhood. As an adult, she took a wide variety of art courses and studied Photographic Arts at what is now Toronto Metropolitan University.
Tamara Campbell
Nature inspires her work with its abundance of colours, textures and forms; these details are conveyed through the many layers that build upon each other as she creates her paintings. Her unique style blends playful creativity with learned techniques.
Her life experiences, both wonderful and difficult, inform her perspective. Her goal as an artist is to create a visual escape for her viewers – a place to get lost in the details, colours, and textures. She also uses art as a process to search for peace, happiness and healing within herself.
Evgenia Badiyanova Real life with a whimsical twist
(Click an image for larger view and details)Evgenia Badiyanova
Evgenia loves painting watercolor animals doing silly things like drinking tea or eating sushi. She takes inspiration from real life and adds a whimsical twist.
To learn more about Evgenia’s work or contact her:
Judith Versavel Using expressive colour to enhance her work
(Click an image for larger view and details)
Every budding artist has a beginning and Judith knew she wanted an artistic life at age seven. Her first drawings were crude affairs, but gradually they changed and became something more. Her path was set. She drew people, cartoons and horses, many of them gifted to school friends.
Judith Versavel
Her first job in Toronto, where she grew up, was drawing ads for the Bell Telephone Co. Yellow Pages. In 1986, after an 8-year stint as a graphic artist at Camden House Publishing (Harrowsmith Magazine) she began working for Kingston Publications, gave up her drafting table and hit the digital world. During her career, Judith taught fashion and graphic illustration, plus various painting courses at St. Lawrence College in Kingston. She also painted commissions, mainly portraiture in watercolour.
In the mid-90’s, Judith began exploring acrylic painting and appreciated the lush colours and quick drying time. Watercolour dries lighter, acrylic dries darker, another difference when working back and forth between both mediums. But Judith persisted and found pleasure in their challenges.
In 2002 she moved to Arden, a small town north of Kingston where her family had roots from the late 1800s. Here she opened her “Gallery on the Bay” and drew in a loyal clientelle who enjoyed her colourful paintings and original one-of-a-kind jewellery. Judith and five other artists in Arden became known as the Arden Artisans, holding an Annual Garden Party and Open Studio Event, and participating in the Inroads Studio Tour each year.
Painting excursions with friends to Val-David and the Charlevoix region in Quebec and a painting trip to Italy in 2007 brought the enjoyment of plein-air painting. She has participated in many art shows and has shown her work in local venues over the years in Toronto, the Kingston area and Perth. Judith’s subject matter is varied and her use of expressive colour enhances her work. Her paintings are in private collections in Europe, Mexico, the United States and throughout Canada.
Her most unusual experience occurred when a painting she did after seeing Schindler’s List years ago was gifted to a doctor in Toronto in the late 1990s. Years later she received an email from a man wanting to know if she was the artist who had produced the painting. He had bought it at an auction house in New York. You never know where your work will end up and isn’t that a happy thought!
To learn more about Judith’s work or contact her: Studio/Gallery on the Bay 1010 Willett Lane, Arden, ON K0H 1B0
Laurel Onfrichuk Captures on paper what sparks her interest
(Click an image for larger view and details)
Originally from the Niagara Peninsula, Laurel took lessons in oil and sketched using charcoal and pencil many years ago.
Laurel in Capri
While raising a family, photography became her creative outlet which allowed her to easily take her hobby with her as she travelled to activities with her children.
Contemplating retirement in 2019 she considered returning to oil painting but didn’t want to fuss with the solvents necessary for cleaning. A co-worker dabbled in watercolour and she loved the transparency and lightness that could be achieved so decided to explore this medium.
A long time dog lover, pet portraits quickly became her favourite subject. Today the themes she paints are varied and range from animals, people, flora and inanimate subjects. If it sparks her interest she’ll attempt to capture it on paper.
Linda Hamilton Creating a sense of wonder with botanical sculptures
(Click an image for larger view and details)
Linda is an artist working out of her home studio in Almonte, Ontario, Canada. Her current focus is creating botanical sculptures out of paper.
She has been creating art for most of her life, and making paper flowers for about 10 years. She earned her BFA from York University in Toronto. Soon after her two kids were born, she started to create large scale paper flowers for displays. Her house quickly filled up with them so she had to switch to a more realistic size! At the same time, she was concentrating on making her flowers more and more botanically accurate. She uses all sorts of paper and paint, along with glue and wire, in an effort to accurately recreate plants and flowers. Linda mounts her finished flowers in shadow boxes, or displays them in jars, as this isolates them and presents them as botanical sculptures.
Linda loves to create a sense of wonder with her work, and to encourage respect for, and interest in, nature. She knows that many people have a strong emotional connection with flowers, and this is something she continues to explore. Her future goal is to create larger shadow boxes that incorporate multiple species “growing” together.
Linda creates paper flowers under her business name, Daydream Flowers. She sells her work on her website, creates custom flowers for clients, offers paper flower making workshops, and participates in exhibits and sales. In 2021 Linda was honoured to be invited to join the Paper Artist Collective, an international group of paper artists. Linda’s work has been exhibited in Canada and the United States, and her pieces can be found in private collections around the world.
For more information about Linda’s creations or to contact her:
Sheryl has always consistently pursued art learning with every opportunity from a very young age. This included a wide variety of art classes that commenced from her teen years. While completing a Bachelor of Arts at Carleton University, she met abstract artist Lila Lewis Irving of Mississauga. She inspired Sheryl to try abstract painting with fluid acrylic paint. As her art progressed, she merged her love for acrylic paint on canvas with mixed media techniques, such as collage, oil stick, acrylic marker, ink pencil, and spray paint. Sheryl feels that art should be enjoyed, and it is her goal to get as much of her art as possible out into the world.
Sheryl Siddiqui
She was awarded Third Honorable Mention in the 2021, Art2Life International Juried Art Exhibition. Winners were chosen by juror Juan Kelly owner of Nuart Gallery in Santa Fe from over 4,500 works of art. She has been featured in several solo shows in Ottawa as well as participating in group shows. One of her paintings titled Green Rooftops was featured as the image for an innovative green living housing complex in San Francisco, CA. Sheryl was featured in two artist interviews with CBC Radio program, In Town and Out with Adrian Harwood and Ottawa Morning with Hallie Cotnam. She recently completed two consecutive years of the Creative Visionary Art Mentoring Program which were created and led by artist Nicholas Wilton. The programs offered creative coaching to artists in addition to art education. These courses were incredibly transformative to Sheryl’s artistic journey. Her creative process is now more spontaneous and authentic than ever before. Joy and passion have also found their way into her daily routine as an artist.
Clare is the owner of CS25art and a high school senior, she has been doing art her whole life and specifically architecture art for the last three years.
All of her pieces are done with waterproof pens and watercolours. She likes doing both local and famous landmarks, as well as commissions for homes and local businesses, selling both prints and originals.
You can check out her social media to see more of her art and contact her:
