BMFA Artist Directory

My art is an interpretation of the beauty in our country and places I have visited using acrylics in a realistic style. My desire is that people viewing my art will remember a special moment or place the painting evokes as they view it.

Hilary Wilson is a ceramicist based in The Blue Mountains, ON. She first found clay while managing a pottery studio at summer camp in 2017 and never looked back. Hilary loves getting her hands dirty and shaping something beautiful out of clay, taking inspiration from the natural world. She focuses on creating functional objects for everyday living to bring slow awareness to simple moments.

My name is Peter Scott Elliott, a colour expert. I have worked as a professional colour consultant since 2018, helping people make design and colour decisions for their homes and lives.
Prior to that I had a colourful career in the computer animation industry beginning in 1998. Where I worked on a wide variety of projects in the film and television industries. Credits include movies such as Friday the 13th part ten Jason X, and music videos for the band Prozak.
Returning to my roots as a visual artist has been my primary focus of the past three years. Acrylic landscape painting is my passion and the great Canadian Shield is my inspiration.

I love to create art quilt pieces that are colourful, conceptual with lots of texture and embellishments. I began as a traditional quilter and gradually moved into Art Quilting. I love to experiment with new techniques and I am constantly challenging myself. I belong to two international Art Quilting groups and have exhibited in Europe, USA and Canada.

Mixed Media artist residing in Owen Sound. I pull my inspiration from the landscape that surrounds me. Pulling texture, colour, and depth into my works using a variety of techniques. I am a self taught artist that specializes in abstracts but also loves to paint Atmospheric seascapes.

Painting from my photography

Meet EJ, the world-renowned macrame artist and expert knot-tyer extraordinaire. I have been weaving my way through the world of macrame for roughly 3.5 years, creating stunning works of art that will leave you knot-tying your own shoelaces in awe.

I’m a master at crafting intricate and delicate designs out of thick, unruly cords that would leave even the most seasoned sailor scratching their head. I have been known to turn the most mundane household items into macrame masterpieces - from plant hangers to wall hangings, mostly wall hangings, to even a fully-functional hammock that can hold a family of four (provided they're not too heavy).

When I’m not busy knotting, I can be found listening to smooth jazz, soca, 90s R&B, and sipping on herbal tea, because what else would a macrame artist do?

So if you're looking for a macrame artist who will knot disappoint, look no further than EJ, me – I’m the whole package, cord and all.

Ingrid started painting miniature paintings in 1990 because of her love for detail. Painting tiny brushstrokes is very therapeutic and meditative. She has sold her work over the years to Private collectors and corporations and has won many Awards by entering Art shows accross Canada and the U.S.

Barbara Kendrick is a Canadian artist raised in northern Ontario and educated at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. She is an original printmaker and painter working in both oils and acrylics resulting in both traditional works and mixed media works that combine drawing and painting along with printmaking methods such as collagraph, relief and drypoint. Barbara started her artistic journey as a painter but began exploring printmaking in 2010. At first these methods proved to be separate disciplines but have more recently overlapped with paintings that include elements of print and original prints that include multiple mixed media techniques. Barbara has produced numerous small editions and focuses primarily on creating bodies of work that are varied throughout the edition with each piece being different from the previous, ie: monoprints, monotypes and mixed media works. Barbara currently works throughout the Georgian Bay area maintaining studios in both Wasaga Beach and in the Parry Sound area.

I'm a pyrography artist sourcing wood for my pieces from my own back yard. I have a passion for traditional tattoo inspired art, and incorporate the bold line work into all other styles of burning that I do.

Heather LaRue lives in Collingwood, Ontario and began drawing and painting at an early age. She studied at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto for classical drawing and painting.

Barbara Pearn was born in Stratford, Ontario and grew up on a farm near Fullerton. Barbara took up watercolours as a teenager and early sales encouraged her to keep painting.

Barbara began her own successful graphic design business ColourPix, in 1998. Her graphic design work helped fine tune her colour knowledge and composition skills. Starting in 2005 she began to publish The Art Map, an annual guide showcasing regional artists, art galleries and art shows, until 2020.

She has participated in many local art shows in Grey and Bruce and is an active member of the local arts community. She is currently represented by the Matilda Swanson Gallery in Clarksburg and Garage 13 in Eugenia. She is currently a member of the Blue Mountain Foundation of the arts, in Collingwood.

Her work is in private collections in Canada, United States as well as in England.

She currently lives in Grey County.

My first creative outlet was designing and sewing fleece outwear. The past 5 years I have been focused on creating art with inks. My journey began with alcohol inks, producing both abstract and nature inspired works. My most recent creations are in encaustic wax and India ink. I love the depth and texture encaustic wax produces. Living in Collingwood brings me close to Georgian Bay and its natural beauty that inspires me.

Cecilia was born in Peru, an extraordinary country, rich in culture, history, and cuisine, along with warm people, and stunning scenery full of colour and textures to stir the artist’s spirit. In 2004, she moved from Lima to Oakville, several years later settled in Collingwood, Ontario which had already become her hometown.
After Graduating as a graphic designer and art studies, discovered painting was her life passion, offering free expression and a means to search infinite creative ways to show the world her inner self.

Cecilia is an Abstract / Figurative artist creating a fusion between her Peruvian origins and the Canadian living experience. The moody soft colors define her style when expressing her art as Canadian landscape setting a different tone and self interpretation of the scenery.

Exhibits

2018 Collingwood ON - Press Room Gallery -Solo Exhibit-Woods and Farms
2017 Toronto ON - Peruvian Canadian Chamber of Commerce Collective
2017 Lima Peru - Private Charity Exhibit- St. Mary's Church
2016 Collingwood ON- Press Room Gallery Collective Exibit
2015 Lima Peru - Hacienda Queirolo Solo Exhibit
2014 Lima Peru - Private Solo Exhibit
2013 Toronto Art Expo- April
2012 Lima Peru- Colors in my Soul.
1998 National Museum Lima-Peru
1997 National Museum Lima-Peru
1996 Borkas Gallery Lima- Peru
1994 Bank of Commerce Lima- Peru
1993 Reserva Gallery Lima- Peru
1992 Euroidiomas Gallery Lima- Peru
1991 Villa Maria School Lima- Peru
1990 Menart gallery Lima- Peru
Institutions
2002 Communications Group 3i Lima-Peru
2000 3M Peru Lima- Peru
1998 AFP Integra Lima- Peru
1997 Nuevo Mundo Bank Lima- Peru
Studies
2000 Private Art Studio- Ana Maria Pizarro Lima- Peru
1990 Private Artists Studios (Honduras, Jamaica, Argentina, Brasil, Spain)
1985 Toulouse Lautrec –Graphic Design Lima- Peru
1983 University of Lima-Communications Sciences Lima- Peru

Margaret Cora Schmor

‘Capturing moments, memories and special places in Georgian Bay and Escarpment Country’

I am a Collingwood-based landscape painter, working mostly in acrylics and mixed media. I paint from a place of gratitude and joy for life, celebrating the beauty of the world in which we live. My paintings reflect my love of nature, the beauty of ‘place’, and the awe and wonder of creation. It is my hope that they bring that same joy and wonder to each viewer.

With brush and canvas, I strive to capture the beauty, and feeling of peace - the gift of a walk in the wild. I love to paint my favourite places and unexpected beauty on Georgian Bay, along the Bruce trail or on one of the many beautiful local trails. The special places that evoke memories and bring joy with each visit. I love the architecture of winter trees and long January shadows, the light dappling through summer shade, the moody blue skies over Georgian Bay, and fall fireworks of colour. While my camera is usually an iPhone these days, the inspiration for my paintings comes from the joy of daily excursions in our local ‘backyard’.

Painting has always been an outlet for me and is highly influenced by my ever-changing environment
and my emotions. Throughout the pandemic I was challenged on many levels and coming back to the
brush has always helped me in a therapeutic way. “Paint Doodling” is what I’ve named my style of oil
painting. I have been using this method of abstract brushwork on canvas since 2019. My paintings start
with an idea but are mainly unplanned; I simply let my brush and energy lead the way.

As a medical administrative student in 2019, I had done some volunteer work for a placement in Hospice Care at the very start of the pandemic. Also, at that time I was going through a divorce, leaving me a single mom with two young children. The sadness and depression I felt for the world (including my own) was indescribable. In Hospice there were people dying very much alone, and this broke my heart. My heart was already broken due to the crumbling of my marriage. Now, with the world suffering, this was the most challenging time I had ever been through, and this is what lead me to my current body of artwork: The Gold Series.

The Gold Series is light, dark, thick and textured with spurts of colour and energetic brushwork that
carries the eye continuously. The gestural brushwork combines mixed wet-on-wet techniques with
impasto and palette-knife painting, lots of uneven tones and questionable textures that keep sending
your mind spiraling, trying to understand the abstract nature of the painting and relate it to this world.

My artwork is very busy, and I hope to achieve periods of distraction while guiding you away from current, everyday stressors, and into a different world for a moment in time. Now, with the pandemic somewhat in the end stage, I focus on the positives of my current life situations and absorb the positive energies that I gather from spending time in nature with my growing family and bring all that back to the studio.

Historical War movies have now entered my realm as a high interest late night activity recently due to the fact that I’ve found them to put life into perspective. Coincidently, the series has moved into darker and “bonier” looking abstract figures. I have found that the more I learn about the wars that took place and the suffering our veterans and citizens endured, the more I’m given hope and gratitude for what I DO have in this blessed life.

Biography for George Rutherford

Although George has always enjoyed drawing and painting, his busy career as a Head of School permitted him very little time to do so. Since he retired and moved to Collingwood, George has devoted more of his time and energy to painting, exclusively in acrylics.

His inspiration comes from his many excursions in the Southern Georgian Bay region, as well throughout the more northern regions associated with Georgian Bay – Parry Sound, Killarney and Sioux St. Marie.

The genesis of many of his paintings is a scene or a feature that catches his eye. Often a photograph is taken for reference. From there, the idea is translated in a sketch. The intention is to create a pleasing composition. It is at this stage that elements in the photograph are eliminated or altered to suit. Once accomplished, then other preliminary decisions are made – time of day, season of the year, weather conditions, the size of the painting and the like.

Once the painting is started, constant decisions are being made and at times, the composition departs from the original mental concept and sketch. Painting often results in happy accidents which catch him by surprise and add to the composition. But there are the not-so-happy accidents that occur which prompt him to pause the work and walk away. Returning to the work with new insight and a new challenge is invigorating even though it feels like a bit of a battle at times.

George also enjoys chatting with other artists as they too inspire him.

Finally, well known artists that inspire him include Andrew Wyeth, The Group of Seven, Ken Danby and Philip Craig.

George’s work is posted on his Instagram site rutherford317.

Rich in possibility are the relationships between the natural world and the human spirit. My work examines the often overlooked seemingly inconsequential elements in nature.
I work on birch panels, using acrylic paint, oil pastels and spray cans. I pour, sculpt, draw, spray and layer the paint to create the depth and texture that I am looking for with each painting. This process takes time as each element or layer gets added bit by bit to build up to the final product.
Recently I have moved to Fergus Ontario, and live on the Grand River. This has inspired me to evolve my work and explore the relationship between the natural world and the human spirit.
I examine and combine the concepts of nymphs and ancient mythology on the spiritual world that exists in nature. I look in riverbeds, water, forests, trees, birds and in particular I am drawn to the eagles that fly past my windows as they fish the river. The river is the perfect vessel for the woman’s body and spirit and they take on a mythical quality as they combine on the panels.

David Fisher has always drawn, painted and made things. When he was three, he
attempted to encapsulate "The Whole World" in a pencil drawing. His mother saved this,
and some 55 years later, it was turned into a painting. Using a childhood musings is not
unusual for his work: inspiration comes from anywhere, and everywhere, but is personal
and often playful.
The philosophy behind his imagery, besides creating a very real and detailed world, is
to get the viewer really see things. By carefully cropping the subject and controlling the
scene, everyday or otherwise overlooked situations are perceived in a different light.
Some might say that the artist's responsibility is to help others see the world through a
different perspective. This is largely true of David's work, but the true litmus test is quite
simple: is it fun?
His training included a Fine Arts degree at York University, and after some initial
success in local galleries in Toronto, he pursued a career in digital graphics for TV; the
CBC from 1990-93, and then TVO 1994-2015. He was also a member of the prestigious
Toronto Arts & Letters Club from 2012-2016, and has been a member of the BMFA
since 2017.

Deb has always loved art!!! She graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, studied art direction and illustration at OCAD and also received her Bachelor of Education. Throughout her life she has always worked in the arts: as an artist, freelance illustrator, magazine production manager, event planner and high school art teacher. She has shown her work at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Ingram Fine Arts, BMFA group shows and most recently she was selected to create an interactive mural for Collingwood’s Art Alley, which has garnered rave reviews and a constant clammering of willing participants to have their picture taken in the JUMP mural!

Woven into that is her love for sports and the great outdoors: internationally competitive rower, nordic skier, swimmer, runner, and soon to be triathlete. After a long and winding journey she is now calling Collingwood home and diving back into life as a full time artist.

Her landscapes are a zoomed-in look at some of nature’s most overlooked gems of beauty such as beach stones, fallen leaves and feathers that have washed ashore. Her portrait work captures the essence and personality of its subject and the eyes reach out and speak to the viewer. Most of her work is acrylic on canvas as she loves the vibrancy and detail she can get with the medium but she is also in high demand for her whimsical watercolours, and sentimental dog portraits. Her work is heightened realism: she sees the colour she paints and her imagery comes alive with details and depth that invite participation and evoke emotion. Currently she is staying busy with her commission work: making custom paintings for clients around the world!

Bonnie is a visual person, easily inspired by any hint of light, shadow, pattern, or texture. She sees the small details, the little things that make our world a beautiful place. Wandering with her camera helps her to savor life and the world we live in. She hopes that when you observe her photos you will feel something special, __some nostalgia, some magic, a sense of wonder or gratitude. Bonnie loves to wander with her camera in this beautiful Georgian Bay area and in far off places in our world.

Robert Pointer is a Canadian artist, educator, and musician working in Grey County. His artwork has been in exhibitions since the 1970's. A figurative artist, he primarily creates intimate paintings from observation or relating to direct personal experience in acrylic, or oil on canvas. A post-modern artist, his paintings can be in the realist, impressionist, or abstract tradition depending on his subject and intention. As a teacher with the Peel District School Board, he taught grades 4 to 7 for over 25 years with a specialty in the arts. After retiring in 2014, Robert Pointer continues to exhibit his art at galleries and shows and teaches art skills at all levels with his business, Wildwood Art adventures and with Magic of Children in the Arts. His exploration of the themes of wildlife, cottage country tranquility and exuberance, aging and a life lived, and the contrasts of rural and urban life keep him inspired. Robert Pointer is a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts.

I am a self-taught emerging artist who moved from Germany to Canada and currently living in Bradford. 

My work mostly attempts to capture the beauty of nature. Most of my pieces are in blue shades. I think blue calms my thoughts and feelings .

I love participating in auctions as it not only helps me as an artist but also helps the art center raise funds for various charity organizations. I believe that art can (and should strive to) build a healthy, happy community!

In describing her work, Paulette would say that it is eclectic, covering a wide array of subject matter and media, generally following her heart. Her artistic journey began after completing a certificate program at Sheridan College. Her focus was primarily on painting, later turning to sculpture, in steatite stone, plaster and clay.

Her musical pieces are inspired by her love of music. Having attended many TSO and Jazz concerts, she observed the close personal relationship a musician has with the instrument played, the instrument being a personification of the musician thus bringing objectivity to the art work. These were developed early on, used to publicize a Jazz Festival and in Collingwood’s banner project.

She has participated in Studio Tours, group shows and Collingwood’s Art on the Street. Her work both in painting and sculpture has been recognized in Juried Art shows in Erin, Collingwood and in the Town of the Blue Mountains.
Recently, her artistic journey has taken her to writing poetry. Her poems and one of her paintings were published in “Canoe Lake Memories” Paddler Press, a poetry anthology paying homage to Canadian artist Tom Thomson. She also contributed poetry to Collingwood’s “On The Land We Love”.
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Alison was born in Montreal in 1969. She grew up in Ontario, living in Niagara Falls, Pembroke and North Bay, before moving to Toronto to attend the Ontario College of Art and Design. After spending 15 years in the city, she moved to Collingwood in 2005.

Artistic expression has always been a significant part of Alison’s life. From earliest memories, she has been compelled to use imagery to recreate that which has fascinated her. From flora and fauna, to man made objects and structures, the diversity of colours, textures, shapes and patterns found in these forms have always been a source of wonder to study and translate through an artistic medium. Every scene she paints speaks to her on a very personal level, evoking an emotional response as a reaction to its character or presence.

In her final year at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Alison began using oils as her primary medium. Since graduating in 1993, she has focused on developing a technique to express the intricacies of light, colour and pattern to recreate a realm which captures the essence of the subject. Her interest in painting landscape was initiated when she started traveling in 1995, and she began exhibiting work shortly after, in 1997. Since then she has been exhibiting regularly, first in Toronto, then in Collingwood, in both group and solo shows. The exploration of the natural world provides endless revelations and inspiration for her work.