A great weekend at Hillcrest Mall

We had a busy , fun filled weekend at Hillcrest mall during our preview show. Here are a selection of photos from the weekend. Firstly a selection of the studio tour artists work

and the artists themselves either demoing or with their art work

Karen Pasieka

Khatcho Yazedjian

Ona Kingdon

Shiva Moghaddasi

Victor Molev

Ben Lee

Chris Kingdon

Susan Chater

Irina Zaretchnev

Sharon Kirsh

Laurel Douglas Shugarman

Kate Liubansky

Josephine Sherman

Olena Lopatina

Masha Toosi

Jamak Hadiyan

Maryam Sadrolhefazi

Yvette Daou Yacoub

News about Preview Show at Hillcrest Mall

 

As part of the Culture Days | Fête de la culture Richmond Hill Studio Tour & Art Sale preview show, several of the Studio Tour Artists are going to be painting at Hillcrest Mall on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Hope to see you there!

Featured Artist: Susan Chater

 "I have been participating in the Studio Tour for eleven years and find that it helps me review and renew my work, keeping me out of a rut.

I paint in watercolour,  in a realistic style, flowers and landscapes, and this year still life with glass objects.    I enjoy the rapport with the visitors and hearing their feedback, since painting is such a solitary endeavour."

Featured Artist: Jamak Hadiyan

Tell us what you are most looking forward to about this years Studio Tour?

 

       I'm most looking forward to showing my latest art work and getting feedback from the audience and other artists. It is indeed an honor to be able to participate in this year's Studio Tour, and I am humbled and privileged to be a part of it. I am looking forward to the entire experience.

 

 Tell us how you got started in the world of art and who inspired you  

 

      Art and Creativity has been an integral part of my life for as long as I can remember, even as a child. 

I have always loved color in whatever medium I have chosen to work in, as an artist and designer.

I embarked in this field more than ten years ago, and I was fortunate to have had many famous artists to work with.

I am so lucky to have had a professional mentor  like  Bobak Etminani,  whom is one of the famous artists in abstract painting. He was both a mentor and inspiration for me.

 

Featured Artist Liz Menard

  
Tell us what you are most looking forward to about this years Studio Tour

Meeting new people.

  
Tell us how you got started in the world of art and who inspired you.

I have always liked to draw and loved looking at etchings. Following the AGO's Rembrandt and Whistler Etching Exhibition, I began taking classes in etching at Open Studio. I've never stopped etching since that time.

Featured Artist: Didi Gadjanski

 Didi Gadjanski has a profound passion for art continually exploring new forms of expression. An honours graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, she is an active participant in the Toronto art scene for the past 30 years with the Toronto Watercolour Society, the Don Valley Art Club and the Arts and Letters Club. She is in great demand as a leader of workshops for various arts organizations and corporations, with emphasis on experimentation and creativity. Having traveled and experienced the people, places and music of many distant cultures, Didi is a keen observer as well as interpreter of these influences in her art. Evoking these experiences, her artistic expression has grown into a distinct language woven on to a surface of textural effects and harmonious colour palette. The language and symbol created is expressed in various painting media. D.D. Gadjanski paintings are in corporate and private collections across Canada and worldwide. She participated in over one hundred group and solo exhibitions. She lives and works in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.

What are you most looking forward to

 It is always fun to meet people and find out what they see in my art especially for the abstract part of my work. Since I teach art and paint various themes and subjects in order to teach people I end up with different images and approaches and have an opportunity to show this in the Studio Tour, while this would not be possible in an one person show which would be dedicated to one theme and direction.

Tell us how you got started in the world of art and who inspired you

 I grew up surrounded by art and artist having them in my family. Being artistically involved in various ways with art and architecture throughout my life I finally went to Ontario College of Art and Design, as an adult, and graduated in Fine Art Painting and Drawing. The most influence in my painting are derived from sites and sounds of countries I travelled, people met and feelings experienced. For the last 25 years I teach art in my studio and in various art schools and art societies in form of lectures, technical demonstrations and workshops. Hope to see you at the Tour.

Featured Artist: Sharon Kirsh

  What I am most looking forward too...

I am so excited to be able to share such a rich cultural experience, with family friends and neighbours right here in Richmond Hill. As an artist, it is truly amazing to live in Richmond Hill, a culturally rich and diverse town that recognizes the value of the arts and supports the arts community. I feel honoured to be part of this amazing event and look forward to meeting more of my community!

 

 How I got started in the world art and who inspires me.

I was a really lucky kid, as my mom let me paint on the walls of our house. As a kid, I always thought that I wanted to be an artist, but as I got older didn’t feel that art was a practical career. It wasn't until, during my maternity leave, from a very practical job I did not enjoy, that I decided to take some art classes right here in Richmond Hill. After taking classes with the town, and feeling both inspired and encouraged I enrolled at the Toronto School of Art and then the Academy of Art & Design. I am very much inspired by Marc Chagall, whose work conveys such joy, so much so, that standing in the presence of his work the viewer experiences joy as well. To be able to create feelings of joy and happiness in the viewer is, in my opinion, the ultimate in artistic achievement!

Featured Artist: Lezlie Winemaker

Richmond Hill Studio Tour is awesome!!! I look forward to exhibiting at the show each year! First of all, getting to spend the weekend with such talented artists, share ideas and actually get to see their artwork is inspirational. Boynton House has such character and it's a beautiful location, full of light, and a wonderful place to show off our art!

It's great to have the community come out and show support. I must give credit to the amazing staff and volunteers that make this weekend such a success! I have participated in several other studio tours and it is unheard of to have the Town be running the show. Plus the dedicated people that volunteer so much time to make this event a success are invaluable!

I have met so many fellow bead lovers whom I look forward to seeing every year! Some of them have become true friends! I became instant friends with one couple in particular after meeting them at the show. It was meant to be because of the instant laughter! I knew we were kindred spirits! After all "laughter cures everything"!!!! They have even gone so far as to get my son into an amazing apprenticeship program with an great future!!! The conversations with the different people I meet are diverse, interesting, entertaining and you get to learn something new each day!!!

 

I have been creating my entire life! I started with beading as a child when my grandmother gave me a brown paper bag filled with beads to play with. What a treasure! I wish I could see into that bag today?!?!? As a teen, leather was my medium. From vests, to lampshades, I did it all. I attended art school where textiles and metalsmithing came into my life. I spent many years after graduating creating leather, metal, and enamelled accessories. In 1993 I was reading an art magazine when I saw the amazing beads of Loren Stump and Pati Walton. Their beads took my breath away and I actually gasped!!! I knew I had to do this. It took me 4 years to actually amass enough information to feel confident in lighting up the torch for glass in my home, especially since I had young children to protect! 2 months before giving birth to my 4th child I lit that torch for the first time, and I have never looked back!

Glass is my true passion. It is my meditation, a silent journey, melting, twisting, layering, squishing, blowing and sculpting, with glass rods to create one of a kind miniature worlds in glass! Each bead and object has a life of it's own. People bond to a bead, image, colour, or story that has a special meaning for them. The feedback I receive is so gratifying. People tell me they get stopped every time they wear their bead. What can I say...glass is shiny and we are like the crows, always attracted to shiny things!!!

Lampworking or flameworking is an ancient technique from Murano Italy, that was passed from father to son for centuries. If they divulged the secret they could face death!!! It has only been for the past 25 or 30 years that people worldwide have figured it out, adopted their techniques and shared their glass. To watch a maestro from Murano transform glass into the most beautiful and life like figures, dancing, moving, expressing, is like watching a dance unto itself. It is simply awe inspiring!!!

Recently I have had the honour of making "cremation beads" for families that have lost a loved one. They tell me stories of their loved ones, favourite colours, and symbolism that remind them of the person, and I create a special memory bead which actually contains their ashes encased within the bead!!!

Although my main focus is glass, I still continue to create in any medium that strikes my fancy. I still love the leather and metals, but you will always find a piece of glass on it! I love learning and experimenting with different materials. Because of my vast knowledge (and many years of experience) I teach a lot. My classes range from lampwork to metals, enamelling and leatherwork, to beads and even macrame!!! (I know the macrame dates me, but it's new and fresh approach!!!) I am limited to the size of glass objects I can create because I have to keep it hot with a torch, so I fall on my other skills to create finished jewelry and larger sculpture! I have just acquired a mig welder and am teaching myself to weld flowers etc to showcase my glass. Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist!!! Creating for me, is my life source...like breathing is for most!

The studio tour is just around the corner and I look forward to seeing you all there!!! Until then, I will be melting something.....

Featured Artist: Andrea End

 
Memorable Moment at a past Studio Tour,

Seeing my grade 6 teacher.
Although Gloria is on my contact list I had not seen her in over 20 years. I was speaking with some studio tours guests when I turned around and there she was in front of me. It was lovely to catch up and be able to show her what I have been up to!

Three Facts about my work.

1. Why Landscapes? I love to be outside in the forest or by water. (Mountains would work too, there just aren’t any in southern Ontario) Its restful, calming, simplifying.
2. Why gouache? I love colour, shapes, shadow and light. Gouache allows me to paint these shapes in the landscape clearly. No washes, no moving paint around on the board.
3. Why 3 colours? I keep things simple. I paint using the 3 primary colours, and white, mixing whatever colours I need in my paintings. Each colour I use is a combination of those 3 primaries, it feels like one colour that I can pull into various directions.

It feels like the Studio Tours is just around the corner. I am looking forward to meeting with people and seeing and hearing their reactions to my work.

Featured Artist: Kate Liubansky

 Tell us what you are most looking forward to about this years Studio Tour

I look forward to meeting people with different artistic backgrounds and experience. I'm excited to get feedback from visitors about my photos and frames, as well as my theme and overall concept. I also look forward to hearing other people's interpretation of my images and the connections they make based on their personal experience.

Photo by Kate Liubansky, Taken afar - Shot in Borer's Falls Conservation Area, Hamilton, 2014

Tell us how you got started in the world of art and who inspired you.

I began exploring my artistic side in 2012 after many years of wanting to start. I have always been inspired by nature and the environment for its beauty and detail, for its life and inhabitants, for its strength and wisdom. Photographing wildlife and landscapes came very naturally to me, as well as discovering the photography of architecture and the people that are part of the environment. Using natural wood when building frames for my photos is also inspired by nature and allows me to highlight it even further.

My art is about telling stories through photos, framing these photos in natural ways and ensuring that these stories live on forever.

 Photo by Kate Liubansky, Tree Swallows - Shot in Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto, 2014