I was born in England but spent much of my childhood in Malaysia. The stunning scenery and abundance of exotic animals and plants heightened my love of nature and keen interest in drawing and painting. My artwork was selling in local galleries and department stores while I was still a teenager. I settled in Canada in 1980 and live in the beautiful countryside near Toronto, Ontario.

For me painting is a celebration of the endless beauty to be found in the natural world and an expression of my concern for its preservation. My hope is that my work will inspire in the viewer an appreciation of nature’s gifts and contribute to a greater collective environmental consciousness so that we may tread lightly on this earth of ours.

The translucency and unpredictability of watercolours and the rich colours of acrylics both afford exciting ways to express the fragility of a flower, the ethereal nature of a landscape or the drama of a stormy sky. With delicate washes or deep, rich colour they lend themselves to the portrayal of the diverse moods of nature and my emotional response to the wonders around us.

I have always been inspired and motivated by the works of artists like Ernst Haas, Jay Maisel, Pete Turner and of course Eugene Smith. With the advent of digital photography I think the creative possibilities are simply awesome. While I love to travel and have work from around the world I know my best work and most prolific images will always be from my home here in southern Ontario.

I am living in the village of Kettleby with my wife Cindy. As well as producing photographic art I make my living photographing Events, Models and on location Family Portraits.

I've chosen glass as my medium because it is so dynamic. The finished art is always changing. Daylight through a window transforms translucent red into gold, intensifies blues and reveals the complexity of browns. Clear bevels fracture a sunbeam into a rainbow. At night, room light bounces off an opaque sculpture; the patterns on transparent bowls are mirrored on the table.

This interplay of light and medium is also what mesmerizes me as I look at nature's patterns, particularly the trees in the Pretty River valley. Therefore, in my designs, by choosing glass of varying intensity, colour and texture, and by manipulating the glass at molten temperatures, I try to replicate the movement and chameleon nature of the world around me.

Wilhelmina Cavan started painting ten years ago after taking an art course with Douglas Walton which centred on removing the barriers to creative expression. Since then, she has participated in workshops and courses with other artists, and is currently studying academic drawing and oil painting with Harvey and Jeffrey Nelson at the Academy of Art, Canada in Toronto. She continues to paint using both acrylic and oil media, and is inspired by the beauty surrounding her home in King Township.

In my paintings I want to interpret the beauty present in everyday things, people and places: the play of light, the density of the air, a feeling of tension or peace or harmony, sadness or joy.

I have always been interested in art, and had painted murals for friends and neighbours for fun. Inn 2006 I received for Christmas a set of oil paints and canvases and discovered I had talent.

By 2008 I had sold several paintings, primarily commissioned portraits, which motivated me to know more about the process.

I am now studying with Olaf Schneider who is teaching me to open up my style, be more expressive and work on bigger canvases, and have recently taken courses at the "Academy of Realist Art" in Toronto, studying the oil painting techniques of the old masters.

As artists we are often asked what inspires us. I've always found this a difficult question as the answer is infinite. My range of subject matter has always been varied from realistic portraits to completely abstract acrylics. I get bored easily and will change subjects regularly. Not until recently did I discover that in fact my subject matter is secondary to what truly inspires me: texture. Not the texture of actual objects or of my subject matter but the texture of the mediums that I work in. I will become overwhelmed with the feel of pencil on toothy paper, of painting in acrylics with my hands, of a hard edge of pigment on feather-soft watercolour paper. I will be lost in my mediums often for weeks or months at a time working with only one. Then it is over and I am overwhelmed by another texture, carried off in whatever direction it takes me.

Colour, whimsy, and a touch of humour are all important components in all of my paintings.

I believe that art should evoke emotion in the viewer, whether a piece makes them happy or sad, it should also provoke them to think beyond the visual image that they are looking at. For example, a viewer, after having seen my painting 'Urban Crawl', commented that he enjoyed the painting very much, but at the same time it made him very angry since he knew so well what it was like to be stuck in a construction zone during rush hour.

Designing and then seeing these themes come to life on a canvas in a lively and entertaining way is giving me a great deal of delight. I eagerly anticipate finishing each new painting so that I can get started on the next one.

Through Art Du Monde, Simona has been bringing her vision to commercial and residential settings for over thirty years. Formally trained in Europe, she executes trompe-l’oeil illusions, hand-painted murals, original art paintings, and restorations that transform drab or difficult spaces into artistic sanctuaries.

Simona works on scales from miniature to massive, in indoor and outdoor settings. She first evaluates the space to determine the compositional balance it needs. Using high-end materials such as ecological paints and glazes, Simona applies her passion and expertise to the individual needs of each project.

Her culture, her travels and her spontaneous, vibrant personality all contribute to make each and every one of Simona's projects an individual and amazing success.

George Holancin is both an accomplished businessman as well as an artist with a strong belief in sustainable development. George Holancin found a love for creating metal sculptures when he discovered what he needed most was all around him... old rusting farm machinery. His love of nature and the environment is reflected in his handcrafted edition metal art sculptures.

His body of work covers a diverse scope of subject matter as well as approach and technique. He visualizes in abandoned bits and pieces of farm machinery shapes, forms and figures. Old discarded plows, disks, tractor fenders and other objects come back to life in simple forms which reflect the artist's own understanding of the complex relationship between nature and art.

Within each art work one can recognize a "recycled" machinery part. George Holancins' exotic birds and wildlife sculptures depict the beauty of nature and a romantic sense of humour. Each piece reflects originality of vision and form. George Holancins' art works can be seen in galleries in Toronto, Muskoka and Collingwood; in galleries in Naples, (Florida) Charlevoix (Michigan) and Montreal.

Terry Hsu was born with a love of visual arts. His early teachers included Eneha Eytnh and Fanfu Li, who taught him a love of classical European and Chinese painting styles respectively. After moving to Canada, Terry discovered the beauty of the natural Canadian environment and landscapes. This discovery launched him on a new path, which he continues to follow today.

Cynthia Kubinec was born in 1984 and raised in Schomberg, Ontario.

A graduate in Advanced Fine Arts, she has spent several years actively involved in the Canadian arts community. Her work has been featured in group shows as well as in a solo exhibition north of Toronto. Now a member of Arts Society King, her passion, and her reputation, continues to blossom.

My family's love and respect for the natural world, the rolling countryside of home, lingering memories of cross-country trips and a lifetime of journeys to the cottage inspire me to begin on my next piece.

My most recent body of work is a series that I began back in 2008. The pieces have a somewhat graphic feel to the imagery with trees and grasses shown in an almost silhouetted manner. I continue to develop backgrounds in various textures and materials. I find that the flowing wood grains and suggestive shadows in my free-handed plaster work create a complimentary relationship between back and fore-ground that is both apart, yet intertwined. As the seasons progress, everything around me provokes a never-ending inspiration to explore and interpret the natural world.

After graduating with an Arts Degree from Brevard College, Florida, I worked as a commercial graphic artist - while I continually pursued creative endeavours in my spare time.

I like to explore texture and form but it is colour that resonates through me. I use colour literally and symbolically for varying focal points in my works. Through the 1990's I had numerous exhibitions and gallery shows. My unique, one of a kind 3D wall hangings were well appreciated and form part of private collections in Canada, the United States and Europe.

In 2009, I changed my focus into 3D models, bird feeders / houses and wall hangings, initially focused around historic buildings of King Township, which has morphed into numerous private commissions of various buildings including churches, homesteads and businesses. My goal with each creation produced, is a minimum 80% recycled material content.

Art is supposed to invoke emotion, it is truly gratifying as an artist to experience the positive joyous emotion my current medium invokes to it's audience.

I have been producing my own unique style of stained glass artwork since 1996. After watching his father make lamps and window catchers for friends and family, I tried making a simple lamp and liked it. Enjoying the result and challenge, and to compliment to his interest in furniture design and construction, I starting making more.

I added fused glass (also called “warm glass”) to my offering with the purchase of a large glass kiln in 2008. Though I will continue to utilize traditional copper foil and leaded glass methods in my artwork, fused glass will be my predominant focus going forward.

Acrylic painter Andrea Loeppky has gained local recognition for her work across the spectrum, from impressionistic realism to abstraction. In particular, her images of the sweeping landscapes and rural life in and around King Township Ontario have been featured on the covers of several local lifestyle magazines.

After leaving full time employment in 2002, Andrea began painting in her home studio on a regular basis and has since participated in a number of group and solo shows in York Region and Toronto. Whether working in realism or abstraction where the motivation and approaches are very different, her work commonly features bold colour and high contrast to create strong visual statements.

Award-winning travel photographer Sharon Matthews-Stevens has long had her images appear in national and international magazines and newspapers and now she is offering a gallery of images to the public. The Travel Media Association of Canada in partnership with Starwood Resorts has presented her with an award for "Excellence in Travel Photography" and she was co-recipient of the Ottawa Tourism Travel Journalism Award for her magazine illustrations of a story on the Rideau Canal.

Vibrant colours, texture, form and composition highlight both her fine art photography and a variety of published work that includes multiple credits in newspapers including the Washington Post, Toronto Star and Toronto Sun and magazines ranging from Cruising World to Ski Canada.

She recently won The Freeman Patterson Competition at the Toronto Guild for Photographic Art and Honourable Mention in the Russell Gee Competition.

Aggie is a third year mature student at the University of Guelph in Studio Art History. She has been painting for ten years. Her art reflects her desire to view the world from a different place through abstraction.

"I never thought I had an artistic bone in my body, often declaring that I couldn’t even draw a straight line, but on a whim I took a course in painting with Peter Johnston, a well known Guelph sculptor and prof at the U of Guelph and started to paint.

I believe that the entire universe and all that exists in it, is in a constant state of creation and recreation. We as human beings have the astounding privilege of recognizing this and consciously participating in this motion of creation by producing works of art that are as unique as we are individual."

Emily Studied at the Toronto School of Art, Canada. The schools’ emphasis was on freedom and finding each students’ natural ability: rather than dictating technique. Emily was fascinated with the human form and most of her earlier works involved the human figure representing love and belonging. Following her need to explore further, she enrolled in the International Academy of Design and Technology. She became interested in the space surrounding the figure. She wanted to create the same energy and momentum in the human figure but allow the space to become the object.

Her latest series “Forget me knots” represent thoughts of life and living.

I began with a piece of charcoal on a blank canvas, pure transit emotion and a desire to express remembrance.

Legend has it that in medieval times a knight and his lady were walking alongside a river. He bent down to pick a posy of flowers from the river bank, but because of the weight of his armour he fell into the river. As he was drowning he threw the posy to his loved one and shouted "Forget me not.” Stricken with grief she tied a knot around her finger so as to remember him. My paintings depict the knight; he believes his amour will protect him.

He is surrounded by strokes of future dreams, sinking knots of memories and impasto thoughts of forlorn . He is unwilling to remove his armour and swim to the surface for fear of being vulnerable; he would rather drown.

Like the knight, we too often slip beneath the waters of life, not realizing we have the power to take off our armour and live.

After a long hiatus lasting several decades, I picked up my paintbrushes in 2004 and haven't stopped since. I strive to depict my subject matter with intensity and detail using a traditional format in graphite, pen and ink, watercolour and more recently, acrylic. I am passionate about the natural world; hence I paint in a realistic botanical style. My attention to detail and curiosity extends to documenting people engaging in everyday activity and architectural detail. I am rarely without a camera and a sketchbook.

The public response has been very positive; my work has been exhibited in many regional juried shows and exhibitions and my painting of the Bloodroot was included in the fundraising publication: "Oakridge's Moraine, Connecting with Nature", Artists preserving the Moraine with Paint.

Art affiliations include Kaleidoscope East Humber River Artists (my painting buddies); Botanical Artists of Canada, Art Society King, Richmond Hill Group of Artists and (associate member) Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.

In 2008 I was given the opportunity to instruct at the Schomberg School of Art where I offer workshops.

With a fine arts background and experience in Oil, Watercolour and Acrylic painting, Mary’s passion is in the teaching of the craft to her students. She runs a very popular studio in Kleinburg and has passed on her joy of painting to many hundreds of students.

Mary enjoys painting in many styles. She loves to teach the discipline of strokework, based on the old German and Bavarian styles. Her real passion is Primitive or Naïve art. This art form is really the art of the people. The first immigrants to this continent left wonderful examples of art behind in Europe and in their need to recreate that art they began to paint on household objects and furniture as well as walls. Well known examples of this art form are the works of Rufus Porter, Grandma Moses and currently her great, great grandson Will Moses.

Mary uses Canadian subject matter in her interpretation of this style.

Primarily self-taught, Linda’s artistic education has come from hours of drawing time and direct involvement with the animals she so admires. She works predominantly in oil, and focuses on a variety of equine and canine subject matter. In her paintings she strives not only to capture accurate anatomy, but the spirit of the animal as well.

Taking part in several juried shows across North America, Linda’s work has been recognized with several awards in various competitions, including the Oil Pastel Society’s “Beginnings” Show, New Jersey Equine Artists’ Association’s Art of the Horse, Art Show at the Dog Show, Harness Tracks of America, the Draft Horse Classic and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair’s Fine Art Showcase.

In 2007, Linda was one of only eleven International artists selected to portray one of the past winners of the Dubai World Cup, and was invited to attend the resulting first-ever Dubai World Cup Art Auction and Exhiiton. Linda also regularly donates paintings for the fundraising efforts of causes close to her heart,among them LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society, Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame and Equine Guelph. She lives in the picturesque Niagara Escarpment, and divides her time between painting, working with her Border Collies, and taking care of the charismatic assortment of Thoroughbreds who provide endless inspiration for her work.

After a career as a graphic designer / illustrator and then travelling to Florence, Italy to study academic painting and drawing, Judy decided to pursue her career as a visual artist full time. Her work is shown in galleries and exhibitions. Judy has received OAC Grants and won various awards for her work. Her pieces hang in private collections throughout Canada, USA, Scotland and Ireland.

"I have always admired the quality and aesthetics of the old masters and at the same time was fascinated with the reality and emotions that cartoons evoked. They could convey a message with such simplicity and ease. After much contemplation, I decided to incorporate the two ideas. With this combination I am excited to paint in the traditional style that I admire and at the same time include toys that evoke a spirit of nostalgia and elevate the soul".

I was born in Germany and now reside north of Toronto. I have been painting for over forty years and am primarily self-taught. I have exhibited in both group and solo shows, won awards for my work, and is a member of artist leagues both in Florida and Ontario.

I have has a penchant for warm colours and can be detail oriented or abstract in my selection of subjects often presenting a familiar subject with unusual backgrounds. My use of red hues are most obvious in my present work and I have recently moved to more abstract subject matter. My pieces are lively and expressive, delivered in very intense colors, on simplified rich backgrounds. The work is very modern and contemporary and illustrates my versatility, particularly in my works of nature.

I have shown frequently in galleries, shows and exhibitions in North America and my art has been purchased to private and corporate collections in Canada, the U.S.A and Europe.

I am an artist who has dabbled in many forms of artistic endeavour and types of creative medium, but found a particular passion for glass work.

I have a keen interest in nature, which I endlessly try to record with my camera, and from these images I select the ones that speak to me through their beautiful colours, balance and serene harmony to reproduce in glass. I make these garden stakes because, in addition to visual interest, they add luminosity and shine to my garden and those of my friends and family.

Inspired by her love of nature, empowered by her passion to paint, Brenda Weeks captures the very essence of her subjects. Having summered for over 38 years in the beautiful Haliburton, Ontario area, she draws from an abundance of subject matter. Brenda has mastered one of the most important skills for an artist to master… that of drawing. Her drawings are translated through her brushstrokes communicating even the most delicate feelings and textures.

As a self-taught Canadian artist, Brenda explores the diversity of her creative talents with acrylics and is also an avid photographer.

Her artwork can be found in many private collections across North America, also at the Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Centre.

Barry Westhead developed a keen interest in black and white photography and darkroom techniques some 40 years ago, but a career in Industrial Engineering led to a hiatus from photography until the dawning of the age of digital photography.

While continuing to practice photography in commercial and industrial applications, he enjoys finding and celebrating art in simple subjects and places such as the waters and valleys of the Humber River Region. He also specializes in the art and techniques of producing accurate archival giclée reproductions for other artists. Being able to provide this service brings the satisfaction of combining the best technological equipment with knowledge, skill and appreciation of the work of other artists.

Running 100km of trails through forests and fields of the Humber Watershed each week with two border collies, provides ample opportunity for scouting future photographic images, and a gratitude for the inspiration provided by nature.

‘cARTographer’ Ron Wild's ‘Wild Maps’ have been described as intense, multi-dimensional, content-laden yet finely detailed, personal, idiosyncratic, and vibrantly engaging. While traditional visual art is created for its own sake, many of Ron’s smART MAP images are the direct result of high-tech visual thinking processes being used to develop next generation graphical computer interfaces. For the past 5 years, his work and art has focused specifically on information visualization innovation. He brings a strong science / engineering background to his visual thinking and art-making processes. Ron Wild works downtown in Toronto, but his heart lives out west on the great plains of Alberta.

The resulting “maps” in this collection highlight unique Art/Science perspectives, inviting the viewer to take a closer look at the details that comprise them. Each time we look closer, we see new similarities, patterns, and connections that are both intriguing and at times frustrating to reconcile. Generally however a deeper viewing is rewarded with the comforting discovery of precise mark-making/ placement and meticulous attention to detail. Utilizing up to 100 layers of varying opacity, these are the kinds of images that a modern-day Kandinsky using computers would draw.

Tom and his wife Mara moved into the Schomberg area 27 yrs ago. They were drawn to the area because of the quaint historic village and the rolling green pastures beyond.

They live in one of the charming heritage houses that make Schomberg so picturesque. Peek over the picket fence and you can glimpse the flowers that are the inspiration for many of Tom's floral studies.

“My passion for photography reflects my philosophy of life: Life often passes us by, as if through the window of a moving vehicle. I have learned to stop, and savour these precious moments. This enables me to capture the essence of a fragment in time - the play of light and shadow on a curled petal or dew drop on an upturned leaf - which I translate into photographic images.”