OUR INSTRUCTORS
We wouldn’t be who were were without our incredible instructors.
Our teachers honour Homer Watson by teaching the next generation of Canadian Artists.
Aatiqa Javad
Ana Vatres
Candice Leyland
Specialties: Watercolour, Drawing, Art History, Kids Art
Website: www.candiceleylandart.ca
Social Media: @CandiceLeylandArt/Candice Leyland
Best Piece of Advice: Create art for the sake of it and be kind to yourself.
Secret Talent: I can write forward and backwards at the same time (mirror image).
Cheryl-Ann Hills
My fine art creations reflect a deep connection to nature. This love of organic forms is also reflected in my graphic design work. I value my time hiking in the forest, observing nature and showing appreciation for our planet’s inhabitants.
I successfully follow two paths: Fine Art Creation and Graphic Design. Each field requires particular skills which both compliment and contrast allowing me to have the best of both worlds and giving me an edge in both practices.
Janus
Specialty: Ceramacist
Social Media: Facebook: Janus Dances with ghosts Sculpture Instagram: @Janus_Sculpture
What is the biggest highlight of your career as an artist? 911 sculptural installation in New York
Katherine Olenic
Specialties: Comics, Animation, Drawing Cartoons
Website: https://www.katherine-olenic.com/
Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/artby_katherineolenic/
What do you love most about art? Creating your own worlds
If you could have one superpower what would it be? Magic powers like Dr.Strange
Kenzie Whittal
What is your artistic specialty?
You can typically find me covered in acrylic paint and clay! I love to take detailed nature shots though manual photography and use the images as inspiration for my acrylic paintings. I also really love working with clay, both slab building and on the wheel.
Website: www.viewfinderartstudio.com
Social Media handles:
Instagram: @viewfinder_art_studio @viewfinder_fine_art Facebook: @ViewfinderArtStudio
What’s your best piece of advice as an artist?
My best piece of advice as an artist is to not be so hard on yourself, there are no mistakes in art!
What do you love most about art?
Art provides a creative escape that we all need and builds a community. It makes me smile knowing many children have art as ‘their thing or extracurricular’, something I so badly needed when I was younger. Art is so important for self awareness and expression. I love that art is subjective and can have a different meaning to each person.
If you could eat your weight in one food, what would it be?
Potatoes. If I could eat my weight in one food it would have to be potatoes! There’s just so many different varieties; mashed, scalloped, baked, fries and then there is chips, I love them all!
Lambertus De Graaf
Specialty: Historic periods of art, acrylic and oil painting, art history, mural and dioramas, artistic graphics, mentoring potential artist of all ages.
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/bert.degraaf.986
What’s your best piece of advice as an artist? I would say be yourself, but do not be afraid to learn from the Master of Art in the past and present. I like to copy the art of the masters, now so easy on the internet, not to prove something or pretend to create a forgery…but to take the challenge to learn from their techniques and be amazed at the little things that you learn to admire from their skills that you would not see otherwise.
What do you love most about art? Starting at age 14, the arts, especially painting, has been a source of endless inspiration. It is such an amazing thing that art has been around for thousands of years, and artists have been important treasures in every society. It is so awesome to be part of that creative group of artisans that reflect and challenge their cultural society.
What important artists would you most like to meet? John James Audubon, Rembrandt, Raphael, Botticelli, Winslow Homer, Robert Bateman, and so many more of course.
What is my favorite food? My favorite meals combine a paint party with well needed delicious food and drink breaks. Flavoured soups, some salad, lots of hearty breads, and reasonably healthy fruit pies or cakes. And coffee of course.
Logan Soeder
Specialty: Watercolour (forests and illustration)
Website: www.logansoeder.com
Social Media: FB: Logan Soeder, Instagram: @logansoederart
What’s your best piece of advice as an artist? Don’t take advice, allow yourself to flow into who you are.
What fictional character would you most like to meet? Gandalf from the Hobbit/ Lord of the Rings
Moumita Roychowdhury
Specialties: Teaching landscapes in Watercolour as well as Acrylics. On one hand, I enjoy the sublime transparency of watercolours and the fluidity that it offers while on the other hand, I am fascinated by the vibrant boldness of acrylics which renders a richness to my landscapes.
Website: https://moumitaroychowdhury.weebly.com/
Social Media: Instagram: @moumita.dg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moumita.roychowdhury.3
What do you love most about art? What I love most about art is its ability to show things in a new light. I feel every artist has the unique ability to present a fresh perspective to even a mundane every-day scene from life and helps one see the unseen, hear the untold and discover the joy of exploring something unknown. For me, art is something that brings people closer to their inner self and express their deepest feelings through their brush strokes, almost like connecting one to nature and God.
If you had to eat your weight in one food, what would it be? It would probably be Sushi. I am a big fan of this Japanese dish and can eat it anytime of the day, seven days of the week!
Reynold Thomas
Specialties: Figurative drawing and painting, abstraction, charcoal, conceptualization
Website: www.rthomasart.ca
Social Media: @renzzzart
What’s your best piece of advice as an artist?
Explore, make mistakes, create. Repeat
What fictional character would you most like to meet?
I am the real Batman!
What do you love most about art?
I love the ability to tell the deepest stories through imagery.
Scott McNichol
Specialties: Subject matter: Figurative, Landscape, Animal, Abstract & Mediums: drawing (pencil, charcoal, soft pastel), painting (acrylic and oil), sculpture (foil art, clay, plaster, stone and wood carving, cements, resin and bronze casting) and photography (digital and analog black and white) also watercolour, fiber arts and printmaking
Social Media: @Arthur_17674
What do you love most about art? What I love most about art is teaching it. Working to help others understand and pursue their passions in visual language.
Trevor Waurechen
Specialties: Block print, Acrylics, Cartooning, New Media/Electronic art/Interactive
Website: www.waurechen.com
Social Media: Instagram: @waurechen
Best piece of advice as an artist: Experiment, screw up, make mistakes. There’s no better teacher.
If I had to eat my weight in food: It would obviously be pizza. Isn’t eating your weight’s worth the goal at any pizza meal?
Past Instructors
Abeer al Harir
Andrea Lorentz
Atena Ganea
Ayesha Shafiq
Barb Di Renzo
Brenda Alexander
Brett Holmes
Carrie Lam
Catherine Herzog
Dottie Locks
Elvan Suzer
Erienne Rennick
Joe Fansher
Katie Jetter
Kristine May
Lauren Perrin
Marion Anderson
Meg Leslie
Melika Hashemi
Michael Wiens
Patricia Beader
Pearl Van Geest
Rachel Tanner
Ralf Wall (Raflar)
Ruza (Rose) Vatres
Singithi Kandage
Soheila Esfahani
Supria Karmaker
Todd Durnan
