Another new member emerges blinking from the shadows!

[Michele Rushworth]

Sounds like we were definitely at OCA at the same time. I was there from 1978 to 1980 doing everything from illustration to hot glass. I lived two blocks north of the school in a funky apartment in Chinatown.

I was born and raised in Toronto (Mississauga, etc) and moved to the States in 1982. (I got a job in Florida to escape Toronto's winters!) I worked in graphic design for many years too, doing fine art on the side. My ex was a designer at McLean's Magazine and at the Toronto Star.

I'm not familiar with the other schools you mention, though I wish the John Michael Angel Academy had been in existence when I was there.

I don't know what the portrait market is like in Canada but I think there's got to be enough money and cultural appreciation in Toronto for you to be able to make a good go of it.

[Janet Kimantas]

Hi Linda,

I greatly admire your work also and have followed your posts and referenced your website for months. Related to the entire population of a small town in Southwestern Ontario, hmmm? That's not uncommon around here; Brandon must be your married name? Don't tell me you're a Brubacher or a Martin!

Hey Michele,

I am going to look into the Angel Academy also. A year ago-ish I re-applied to the studio art program at U of Guelph (I left in fourth year), but came to the conclusion that it might just be a waste of time and money, as you found at Queen's. I think the art market in Canada is very backward in many ways, but there is a TON of money in Waterloo area and I am cautiously optimistic. About 10 years ago I did a booming trade in pet portraits and was regularly asked to do people, too. They were all cheap and though the pets were good, the humans were very second rate. I'm not going there again, I want to produce the caliber of work that I see coming from people such as yourselves and the many others I have seen here and elsewhere.

Thanks to both of you for your warm welcomes.

[Sharon Knettell]

Hi,

I am from New England, (R. I.) one of the closest Forum members to Canada, who lives in Seattle. I find I get most of my work done in the winter when nobody wants to get out. With the weather you get in Canada, you must be really productive.

Welcome to the Forum, I am looking forward to your participatipn.

[Janet Kimantas]

Hi Sharon,

I love your work. Thanks for your welcome. I looked up Rhode Island in my atlas and you don't look too terribly south of me. I suspect you don't get the nasty cold, but how is your daylight in the winter? I have not got a reasonable artificial light system in place (all suggestions welcome) and in the worst months there is no useful light before 9 in the morning or after 3:30 in the afternoon. So no, ain't that productive in winter. That being said, there is no light quite like winter light. You gotta love it!

[Nicola Scott]

Hiya Janet
Welcome from another newbie