Portrait Society of Canada

2010 member's exhibition

NOTE: for feedback, and/or a tale, technique or critique please send email to: info@portraitsocietyofcanada.com -

Veronica Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan is an internationally renowned portrait artist, featured on Bravo’s Television’s popular Star Portraits series. Recent notable commissions include: Mr. Mike Maedy (CEO Canon Canada), Sonja Bata (Bata Shoe Museum), Countess Von Wedel, Bishop Michael of Canada, Steam Whistle Founders, Dmitri Hvorostovski , Measha Bruggergosman,Tom Diamond,Tanya Stepanova,Dr Draw and many more. Veronica was a First Place award Winner and Peoples’ choice Award Winner at the 2002 International Portrait Festival Competition in Toronto. She is a member of the Arts and Letters Club (Toronto) and founder of the Portrait Society of Canada. Following in the footsteps of the Old Masters, Veronica values accurate drawing as an important starting point. For her, the beauty of representing the personality takes off from there, with its provision of important content information for painting. Veronica is an artist devoted to classical realism and dedicated her formative years to mastering drawing and painting in this genre. Over the years, she has seized every opportunity to perfect these skills, internationally: from Toronto and Frankfurt am Main, to Larnaca and Moscow. Veronica has taken classes at the Surikov Academy of Fine Art Arts and studied Greek Orthodox Iconography in the Agia Mina Monastery, Cyprus. Along the way, she also earned a BA in Art History from Moscow State University. Veronica has exhibited at group and solo shows in Canada, Germany, and Cyprus. Most recent local venues include: John B, Aird Gallery, Imagine Art Gallery, Grimsby Public Art Gallery, St Marks Coptic Museum, Gallery 7 Yorkville, Toronto Heliconian Club, and A&l Club of Toronto. She is represented by the Bohemiarte Gallery, Montreal.

Johanne Demuy has been an artist and portrait painter for about 15 years. She attended the Mission Renaissance Fine Arts School in Montreal, graduating in 1995. There, she learned painting techniques from Old Masters to Impressionists. This school’s teaching methodology involved recreating many Great Masters’ works. Johanne is a representational artist, at ease with portraits, still life, and landscapes, either in oil or soft pastel. She thinks the richness of a painting is determined by its subject matter and composition, and considers a painting finished when it awakens in her the beauty and emotion she wishes to convey. She chose to paint Ian Millar because, to her, he is one of the best athletes in Show Jumping. Johanne also shares his passion for horses, having taken riding lessons for more than 5 years. She wanted to portray her subject is style, on his horse with the gold medal he won, in the team competition at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary Alberta (2008). For her, his bright eyes and smile really express how he shows pride in winning this gold medal with his teammates.

Irene Antia saw Daniel Nestor to be a logical subject for her Olympic portrait. She is a keen tennis player, herself, and has followed his very successful career. Also, she is always surprised that he doesn't get more “hype” in the local news as he was brought up in Willowdale, Toronto. Irene finds this athlete’s facial structure distinctive and interesting to draw. She incorporated the maple leaf from Canada’s flag into the design because Daniel won Gold for Canada, in 2000. The red background signifies energy and passion, which Irene believes is a must to constantly win at tennis. And, of course, this color is in the flag too, with the gold representing the gold of the Olympic medal. For Irene, Nestor’s expression shows the concentration and perseverance needed not only to win, but to constantly train.

Jean Miller Harding is a Canadian artist born into an artistic family from the Niagara region of Ontario. Besides their love of art, they’ve always had an intense interest in the form and functioning of the human body. After receiving an undergraduate degree in science and fine art history, specializing in the European masters of the Renaissance, Jean entered the Faculty of Medicine programme for Medical Art at the University of Toronto, graduating with honours and receiving the highest award for her artwork. For the 15 years following, she had a successful career as a freelance commercial medical illustrator, across North America. During that time, she illustrated over 400 magazine covers, worked with National Geographic on a hard covered book called The Incredible Machine, and helped produce many advertising campaigns for the pharmaceutical industry, some of which won international awards. During this time, she also studied portraiture with John Howard Sanden at the Portrait Institute in New York City, and classical realism in Florence, Italy, with Maestro Michael John Angel, who was a student of Pietro Annigoni. In 1988, she received her first commission to paint a portrait and a successful career as a portrait artist was launched. In 1994, Jean was asked to participate in an art show in Jakarta, Indonesia, sponsored by the Canadian Embassy and this prompted the beginning of her work in figurative and still life fine art.

Jennifer Foster's drawings and paintings stress an appreciation of the everyday world. They seek to capture and convey positive things found in everyday life: the peace and grandeur of the landscape, and the warmth, dignity, and inner strength of people. Portraits are a particular passion for her because of the opportunity they offer to capture seemingly conflicting elements. She believes that a portrait needs to be accurate and yet expressive, representational but also perceptive and open to what lies below the surface. A portrait, for Jennifer, is much more than a likeness. It should have a psychological component that explores the spirit of the individual and conveys something of his or her character.

Jonathan A. Fligel was born in Scotland in 1966 to a family of artists. He has sculpted ever since he remembers, and it’s been natural for him to pursue this interest. In 1989, Jonathan received a BA Honours Degree in Fine Art in the United Kingdom. After graduation, he worked in the art department of Upper Springland, helping handicapped adults. From 1992, he exhibited and traveled all over the world. Some of his work found permanent homes in locations as different as Perth, Scotland, and The Awapuni Hotel in New Zealand. Subsequently, Jonathan worked on many theatre and film productions in Australia and Canada. These included the Lion King, Nut Cracker, Phantom Of The Opera, Rag Time, Sunset Boulevard, Tommy and more. His travel experiences influenced his work. Jonathan’s career started with abstract sculpture. However, he found sculpting people to be more challenging and inspiring. Jonathan settled in Canada in 2001, where he works presently. He was honoured to have received an invitation to participate at the 2009 Florence Biennale, doing so on behalf of Canada. Through his sculpture, Jonathan encourages people to recognize basic values and the magnificence and strength of the human spirit.

Jamie MacDonald lives in Kingston, Ontario, and is a graduate of Queen’s University, with a BA (Hons) and BEd. Aside from high school and community art classes, he has little formal artistic training, and has taught himself through an intuitive process. Though he paints landscapes and illustrations, he prefers portraiture. His goal, through portraiture, is to reveal the unique character of each person, and to tell their story as best he can. His medium of choice is oil, which he finds to be the most “satisfyingly messy.” John Singer Sargent, Gustav Klimt, Tom Thompson, N.C. Wyeth, and Johannes Vermeer are among his influences. Jamie’s work is usually commissioned, and he enjoys tackling challenging projects. For him, art is most successful when it tells a good story—of the world, a place, a person, or the self. He believes that, in portraiture, two stories are told: that of the subject, and that of the artist. The two are invariably intertwined: in expressing the soul of the subject, the artist must also reveal his own. It is a dialogue, an exchange of secrets not ordinarily shared, one which can extend to include the viewer too.

Hon Kong, as a young Asian, Hon, immersed himself in a land of graphic novels, with Mangas and Animes. For him, the comics and cartoons of North America don’t feel as real. Beyond expressing the dreams and fantasies of their North American counterparts, graphic novels told stories of actual historical legends. The realness of the Mangas and Animes made Hon want to make art with “strokes of his hand.” For 20 years, he was an assistant in a Manga Studio. He also opened a graphic design company, designing ads and websites. However, later, only when he came to Canada, did he really get into portrait art. He focuses on accurate representations of the subject, while leaving room for a creative touch.

Marina Dieul was born into a family of French and Canadian artists. She began visiting European museums when very young, absorbing the talent of the great masters. As a natural outcome, she followed her artistic vocation and completed studies in Fine Arts in France. More recently, she studied with Tim Stotz and Michelle Tully, former students of Ted Seth Jacobs. Marina’s mastery of painting techniques allows her to go beyond more likeness to show her models’ inner being. Marina’s portraits are distinguished by their sensitivity, grace, and harmony. She is well-known for her baby and toddler portraits—both powerful and delicate at the same time. Marina’s work has been honored in magazines (including The Artist, International Artist, and Pratique des Arts) and at competitions (including the ARC Salon and Greenhouse Gallery's Salon International). Accomplishments include: Second Place in a Portrait Society of Canada competition, First Place in the Richeson 75 portrait competition, Grand Prize in the Junction Art Festival, Grand Prize in the Canadian Brushstroke Magazine portrait competition, Best of Show Publisher's Award in the Fine Art Connoisseur, and the People's Choice award in the Kingston Prize. Marina has lived and worked in Montreal for a number of years.

Martha Southwell is a classical realist artist residing in the Niagara region of Ontario. Her paintings show the beauty in all subject-matter and the essence of the human spirit. Painting subjects include people, wildlife, landscape, architecture, and vintage cars. Her paintings are delicate in style, but strongly convey the subject’s personality. Martha is a member of the Portrait Society of Canada and has attended several conferences on the art of portraiture. In 2008, her painting, “The Champion,” was a finalist in the Portrait Society’s International Portrait Arts Festival. Martha has exhibited in both group and solo shows in Canada. Venues include the Portrait Society of Canada’s International Arts Festival, the Portrait Society of Canada’s Annual Exhibition, St. Catharines Kennedy Gallery, and the Pelham Art Festival. Martha’s paintings hang in private collections in Canada.

Jean-Marie Laberge was born in Chicoutimi, PQ, Canada. He has hundreds of sculptures in private collections in the US, Australia, Mexico, UK, France, Japan, and Canada—among them former MP Brian Mulroney and Jean Charest, Quebec LMP. His work is also in corporate and public collections that include: Air Transat, Akan, Bombardier, Loto Quebec, Hydro Quebec, Glaxo International, CGI, Musee des Beaux Arts Sherbrooke, COPAP, Ultramar, Cegerco Inc, Canadian Bar Association, Metropolitan Insurance, and PFCN Inc. Jean Marie has a BA from Montreal University, certificates from Grands Maltres de Paris (general and portrait diploma) and John Cass College London, UK. His MA in Fine Arts is from C University, Washington DC (1968). He also researched Sculptural ART in Bristol UK (1989). He has had more than 15 solo exhibitions, the most recent in New York in 2002. He has also exhibited in 40 group shows, some in Europe and USA. Over the years, he has produced over 100 portraits and busts, for which he has won many medals, first prizes, and scholarships, and created important monuments, from Chicoutimi to Martinique.

Raymond Thomas Woodhams began painting in 1992, as a hobby shortly after retirement. He studied landscape painting under the direction of Douglas Purdon, and completed courses at the local Art Works and Art School. Thereafter he became a member of the York Artists Guild, and later, the Portrait Society of Canada. He recently completed a course in Botanical Drawing given by Nellie Sue Potter. He has participated in several exhibitions since 1992 and will have his first solo show next year at the University of Guelph Humber Cultural Gallery in Toronto. Raymond’s artistic interests remain diverse, though portrait painting still offers him the greatest challenge. He has explored several different mediums but considers acrylics less toxic and easier to control.

Steven Rosati has studied the style and technique of the old European masters and instills his paintings with the same remarkable realism and beauty. His commissioned portraits include Ludmilla Chiriaeff, founder of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Rt. Rev 'd Andrew Hutchinson, Anglican Archbishop of Montreal, several McGill University professors and business people. His portraits are in many private and corporate collections. Steve resides in Montreal.

Marjorie Morton is a classical realist painter. She studied in Florence, Italy at the Charles Cecil Studios from 2000 - 2002 and at the Atelier Rebecca Harp in 2005, and with Irena Korosec of Bohemiarte, in Montreal, Quebec, between 2004 and 2007. She has exhibited in juried group and solo exhibitions and has work in collections in Canada, the US, and Italy. Marjorie was a finalist in the figurative category in the 2007 Art Renewal International Salon. She is a Board Member of the Portrait Society of Canada and a member of the Canadian Society of Classical Realism. Marjorie has a BA, in Art History from the University of Madison, WI and a Master’s Degree in Film Production from Boston University, MA. She taught Film Production in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal from 1980 – 2003, but now devotes herself, full-time, to painting and exhibiting. She lives and works in Modica, Italy. Marjorie believes that portraiture is the crowning achievement in art, and by her participation in portrait-oriented events and exhibitions hopes to contribute to the development and continuation of the art and to encourage others to do the same. Marjorie has represented Joannie in two very different portraits. The smiling portrait is the way in which Joannie responded when asked how she would like to present herself to the world. The portrait with the quiet mood of concentration and grace shows the Joannie that holds her audience spellbound while she is skating.

Deborah Kerr is a self-taught artist specializing in portraiture. She grew up with opportunities of travel to experience people and cultures. Sketching at a young age she concentrated sketching studiously to her 11th year where pastels and her first oil painting was introduced. Inevitably she set her goals to pursue her drive to capture the life of the figure. She has won numerous awards in festivals and juried shows, including the prestigious Grand Prix, Portrait Society of Canada's Arts Festival in Toronto. She is also an alumni member of the Portrait Society of America for over 11 years. She is a commissioned artist for the Glengarry Sports Hall of fame since 1993. Her popularity as a portraitist has been known for her resemblances that adds the character and magic in her subject. She has continued to explore other areas of painting in landscape, and in sculpture, but is compelled to major in portraiture in oils. She sustains the belief that life drawing is her main education of painting even for landscapes and still lifes, and demonstrated it as a very basic learning skill to young teenagers and to seniors group that she taught. Painting Ole was such a wonderful experience, It didn’t take long for me to have an idea for his pose.. adding respect to his wishes of what he would like to see himself emortalized as. He is intelligent, with an amazing memory, charismatic, and a great conversationalist, which adds to the fun of painting him. The more he spoke the more his essence transferred to the canvas. I enjoyed the play of two light sources on him, one natural source of his right side and one of artificial light to his left. The writing above him symbolizes the event with bronze representing his medal. I had him kneeling since his event was based on the ground.“The Grapevine” greek figures in background adds the ancient manuever of wrestling. A newspaper article of the time of his win is set in for historic reference. I found myself painting with the theme of ochres and blues, which magically are his favourite tones, as he himself is a lover of the arts and have majored in it. I had been granted a good 4 hours of painting him live, which gave me plenty information to go home with. A pleasant and proud experience that I hope I succeeded others to see what I saw in him.

Jinny Slyfield strongly believes in a visual record of history and life. She treasures hand-tinted photographs of her ancestors, and has long been a keen observer of faces and expressions. She began painting models in costume at the Ottawa School of Art, and is fascinated by the variety of traditional costumes and facial structures of recent immigrants. She plans to embark on a series of First Nations people and has enjoyed painting Angus Mortimer, an Olympic medal winner at Beijing. Her brushwork and use of colour is unique, yet reminiscent of Varley, and the skin tones glow with the life blood underneath. She layers her paint with rich undertones, and builds the skin much as a sculptor would do. She believes that a painting takes us beyond the realm of a photograph, as she instills her work with her own impressions of the sitter, as she works from the model in almost every case. Slyfield has shown in juried exhibitions in Embassies and Galleries in Ottawa, Toronto and New York. She teaches drawing and portraits at the Ottawa School of Art and at her studio. Her muses have been The Group of Seven, Emily Carr, Raphael, and Van Gogh.

Kelly Morehouse was born in Newfoundland and raised in both the USA and Canada. She studied art at NSCAD University and now works from her hobby farm in Nova Scotia where she lives with her husband and daughter. Her work, for which she has won several awards, has been added to a number of private collections. She is a member of the Portrait Society of Canada and the Hants County Arts Council. She enjoys a busy round of exhibitions, including three showings in the annual spring show of the East Hants Fine Arts Association, for which she has twice been awarded Best in Show. This is the largest juried show in Nova Scotia. Kelly’s work encompasses a wide variety of mediums, with people, animals, and the nature around her, being her favourite subject matters. She has recently been commissioned by Nova Fjords, to create works featuring the Fjord horse, one of which has appeared in the 2009 fall issue of the “Fjord Herald” magazine.

As a young person, Laurel Alanna McBrine discovered her ability to draw precise copies of masterpieces by famous artists of the past, such as da Vinci and Holbein. She then went on to draw portraits of many individuals in her community of Vernon, British Columbia. Later, she graduated from Sheridan College and has since studied on a regular basis with top portrait artists. She has won a merit based scholarship to The Scottsdale Artist’s School and, more recently, was awarded a prestigious mentorship by The Portrait Society of America. Although her work is representational, aside from a perfect likeness, it is the emotional impact and abstract qualities that carry the most resonance. She captures the unique essence of her subject, utilizing light, color and texture. The artistic legacy of past masters such as Velasquez, Cecilia Beaux and John Singer Sargent inform her creative direction and she seeks to combine these historical influences with her personal poetic vision. Her present work is a culmination of years of training and effort and represents art which speaks to the past, but is firmly grounded in our time.