Art has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. It brings people together and IWS Canada’s mission is to do just that – to unify those who live to create and also those who live to love art.
❤ Help us to spread some love around our world today
I would like to thank 7 IWS Canada Symphony in Watercolour finalists, Lorraine Watry, Alexandra Bryska, Jan Min, Carrie Waller, Sun Jiangang, William Rogers and Lianne Todd who spent their time helping me to create this video. You are all AWESOME!!!
Watercolour Demonstrations!
Opening of ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ International Art Exhibit:
Friday Sept. 28. Boynton House, 1300 Elgin Mills Rd. E., Richmond Hill.
Official Schedule:
Booths and exhibition will be open from noon until 5:00 pm within the garden area of Boynton House.
12:00 – 12:15 pm: Welcome speeches and official ribbon cutting ceremony by the Presidents of IWS Canada, IWS Globe & CSPWC/SCPA on the porch of Boynton House
The following events will then take place in booths in the fenced garden area of Boynton House or on the main porch of Boynton House:
12:15-12:45 pm Demos of products/talks by QoR and Da Vinci
1:00-1:30 pm Demos of products/talks by Winsor & Newton and RockWell
1:45-2:45 pm Demos by IWS Master watercolour artists Ze Ze Lai (vice president of IWS Globe)
and Rainbow Tse (youth juror 
for our show)
2:30-3:00 pm Live music by the Hill Chamber Players on the porchway of Boynton House
3:00 pm Award presentations and speeches on the porch of Boynton House
3:45-4:00 pm More live music by the Hill Chamber Players
4:00-4:30 pm Demos/talks by Daniel Smith and DeSerres
4:30-5:00 pm Chance to talk to people at booths and see exhibition at your leisure.
Burr House Craft Gallery & Tea Room, 530 Carville Road, Richmond Hill.
6:00-8:00 pm: An informal gathering of artists and art lovers; a time to relax, socialize and see the rest of the exhibition. Watch the Burr House spinners, weavers and potters at work. Tea and scones will also be available at a small charge.
Saturday, Sept. 29.
Richmond Hill Central Library, 1 Atkinson St., Richmond Hill, ON L4C 0H5
10:00- 3:00 pm 3rd floor of library: Try your hand at watercolour, an activity sponsored by DeSerres, where we can give back to the local community. Connect with people from Richmond Hill and experiment with simple techniques for painting in watercolour.
10:00-10:50 am Watercolour demo by Michael Solovyev, IWS Canada International Director. Watch him create a painting and ask questions.
10:55- 11:50 am Watercolour demo by Atanur Dogan, IWS Globe 
President and Founder. Watch a painting come to life before your eyes.
12:00-1:15 pm Take in David McEown’s presentation: ‘Water & Light, an Artist’s Journey from Antarctica to the North Pole”. David narrates an entertaining digital show that merges painting, video and photography inspired from travels in the Great Bear Rainforest, Africa, Antarctica and the North Pole. Stories of chance encounters with many creatures including polar bears and emperor penguins are woven together with reflections on the environment, and the inner creative process of painting with watercolour.
2:00- 3:00 pm Watercolour demo by Vera Bobson, CSPWC
As you can see, there is plenty to keep an artist interested. These watercolour artists that are demonstrating, are some of the best in the whole world. Almost like attending a workshop only without the fee! Both days are registered Canada-wide Culture Days events.
Those are just the first two days of the exhibition. All information that you could possibly want, including maps, are on the home page of our website iwscanada.ca.
Gather a friend or two and have a fun field trip!!
Toronto Islands Visit
The Toronto Islands are in Lake Ontario, a 13-minute ferry ride from downtown Toronto. We will be visiting them on Tuesday October 2. Boats to the Island leave from the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at
the foot of Bay St. and Queen’s Quay. The ‘Island’ is a group of 15 islands inter-connected by pathways and bridges. You can walk from one end of the Island to the other.
The island is approximately 5 kms long from Ward’s Island to Hanlan’s Point. The view of the city is gorgeous and the island itself is just as beautiful – it’s a photographer’s paradise indeed.
Enjoy the tranquility of Toronto Islands. There are plenty of opportunities to paint, sketch or take photos.
If you would like more information, please view our Five Day Event pdf, or the further detailed information on the ‘Home‘ or ‘A Symphony in Watercolour‘ pages if you’ve decided to go with us.
David Dunlap Observatory – last chance!
We hope you will join us for this special evening during our Five Days of Celebration, finding out about and painting the stars at night!
We are very sorry but we had to cancel this excursion!
This is truly your last chance to say you are interested in doing this activity. It will cost about $20 per person, maybe slightly less if we have more people in our group. At this point, we do not have enough people interested for the evening to go ahead as planned. We have to let the observatory know in the next two days, so if you would like to do this, it’s absolutely essential that you email iwscanada@gmail.com by Tuesday afternoon to let us know!
That means you, Canadians!!
Lake Wilcox Park
The northern half of Richmond Hill is located on a natural feature called the Oak Ridges Moraine which stretches more than 160 km between the Niagara Escarpment and the Trent River. The Oak Ridges Moraine is known for its varied habitats and geographic features shaped 13,000 years ago during the last ice age.
The Oak Ridges Moraine is special because it provides naturally filtered water for abundant wildlife, surrounding populations, and natural areas.
As part of our five days of celebrations opening ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’, we will visit the Oak Ridges Moraine Parkland and Boardwalk (free activity) from 4-7 pm on Saturday September 29.
55 Olde Bayview Ave,
Richmond Hill, ON L4E 3C8
Transportation: If possible we will carpool to this venue.
Take a leisurely walk along the boardwalk. See the sun set over Lake Wilcox, a traditional Kettle Lake on the Oak Ridges Moraine. Opportunities for photography and plein air painting are plentiful.
For more information on our 5 day opening celebration event please visit the detailed outline HERE.
Photo credit: Ona Kingdon
Featured Member – Renee Lippa
Renee is a Canadian mixed media landscape artist painting out of her studio in Sherwood Park, Alberta. At a very early age, Renee began to take a strong interest in sketching and drawing often sitting with her mother while she painted in oils. She initially started with drawing but after proving to have a natural talent and a sharp eye for detail, quickly advanced to paintings in watercolor and acrylic. In a short time, Renee started entering in competitions receiving various top awards.
At the age of 17, Picture This Framing and Gallery sponsored her to take a class with renowned artist Sue-Ellen Ross. Almost immediately, Renee fell in love with Sue-Ellen’s mixed media style and decided to implement some of the same technique into her own work.
Since then, Renee has been recognized in various art competitions across North America receiving multiple awards for her work. In 2009, she was chosen by a unanimous panel of judges to commission a painting for the University of Alberta’s Graduate Engineering Department. The piece called “Unity” can be viewed in the ETLC building at the University of Alberta. After this point, Renee took a short break to pursue dancing competitively as a ballroom dancer winning a Canadian Championship and placing in the top 25 at the world championships in Belgium. She retired in 2015.
Currently, Renee is a full time artist creating original paintings and commissions. Being a self taught artist, she brings a unique style and technique to her work. Her love of vibrancy, texture and detail influences her paintings to have a living and breathing feel. Renee’s goal as an artist is to not only stimulate the mind with lucid imagery but to encourage the viewer to use their other senses. They say a picture can tell a thousand words but a painting can transport you to another place. Whether it is a memory of trees swaying in the wind on a warm summer day or a precious moment gazing over a field of flowers with a loved one, she aspires to draw the viewer in to create their own story.
Below is an example of Renee’s watercolour work. For more about Renee, please visit her website.
Featured Member – Hilary Slater
Watercolour is one of Hilary Slater’s many activities, as she says here:
“I am a creative artist and I work in a number of fields. I paint in oils and watercolours, and I produce original pottery, photography, and Landscape Architecture designs. I am a licensed yoga and pilates teacher, and I have also written 23 Novels to date (2 of which are published) as of 2013. I run a variety of retreats at my Georgian Bay Lakeview Retreat Centre, covering everything from Yoga to Art to Writing to Weekend Escapes.”
Below is an example of Hilary’s work. For more, please visit her website.
Featured Member – Gord Jones
Gord Jones has always been an artist. After experiencing many different mediums such as oils, pastels, acrylics, even egg tempera he returned to his greatest love, transparent watercolour.
Gord has sought direction throughout his artistic career from many of Canada’s most loved watercolourists. He has always found visual communication speaks clearest, even though his interpretations leave room for the viewer to explore and most importantly, participate in the conversation.
He focuses on taking familiar life as subject matter while commenting on the everyday aesthetic of nature and how light describes its many forms. Gord seeks to increase the dynamic between audience and author by objectifying emotional reaction and transferring that sense of space.
Gord is an elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, The Society of Canadian Artists, the Niagara Frontier Watercolour Society, The Haliburton Arts Council, the Rails End Gallery, and is Ontario”s representative of the International Watercolour Society. He is represented by various galleries in Ontario and participates in selected exhibitions throughout the year.
After cottaging in the area for over 30 years, Gord and family have recently made Haliburton their home.
Below is an example of Gord’s work. For more about Gord, please visit his website.
Featured Member – Shahram Sinaei
Our next featured member of IWS Canada, Shahram Sinaei, is an international artist from Iran. He is the holder of a M.Sc Degree in the field of Civil Engineering – Concentration from Islamic Azad University Najafabad Branch/2000.
Shahram’s painting techniques include Niello, Watercolor, and Pastel, his professional art activity starting in 2001 with the late master Poursafa, Mr. Aslani and Mr. Yaghini who is one of the late Yervand’s pupils.
In fact, he learned composition and color class in the presence of Mr.Yaghini and the drawing class in the presence of Master Emadi, one of Pardis Art University professors.
Eight exhibitions, counting the most recent one at the Golestan palace Museum, have featured Mr. Sinaei as an established artist. The paintings’ themes are jobs, sights, buildings, flowers, nomads and migration. They are in the style of Esfahan and refer to the Qajar period until the present. It is worth noting that the founder of Esfahan style was Master Reza Abbasi: it mainly refers to him and has related to people’s daily life and jobs more. Also, the details in this period are more remarkable than before.
Below is an example of Shahram Sinaei’s watercolor work. To view more, please visit his website.
Congratulations Anne McCartney!
We shall interrupt our series of featured members with this bit of breaking news:
Our IWS Canada Regional Director, Anne McCartney, has received news today that her painting ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ has been selected for the Gold Medal of Honor, i.e. the top award, at the American Watercolor Society’s 151st juried international exhibition this year.
Says Anne, “I am black and blue all over I can’t stop pinching myself”. This is the kind of excitement all of us would feel in her position. The award itself is worth, aside from the prestige, $4000 US. The exhibition takes place at the well-known Salmagundi Club in New York City from April 9 to April 28, 2018.
We are truly thrilled for Anne, and so lucky to have her on our team. In addition, she will be a juror for our own IWS Canada/CSPWC international exhibition ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’, this fall in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The deadline is March 20 – don’t forget to enter!
IWS Canada 