Student Profile

IT'S A NEW LIFE!

Had you told Anne Linden a decade ago that when the millennium came she would be spending more than ten hours of her week making art, she would have laughed. For 25 years, Anne was a professional actor and singer - several seasons at the Stratford and Charlottetown Festivals and a tour of Japan with Anne of Green Gables. Twelve years ago she decided to pack up her life on the road to work only in Toronto, where she could be closer to her family. Six years ago she decided give up acting altogether.

The decision felt right for her but she quickly realized that she needed to feed her creative spirit in new ways. While starting a dried flower business from her home, she became fascinated with colour. Wanting to know more about colour, she decided to try a class at the Avenue Road Arts School. She liked the warm, non-threatening feeling of the place and was particularly attracted to a class that said "you begin with a dot." That sounded perfect for a complete novice who had never put brush to paper.

Anne discovered that she had another talent and with this discovery came a new life. She has taken classes at the school, every term, for the past four years. Anne is devoted to her painting, working on it every day from her home in Mooredale. Her training as an actor and musician have helped her to realize that it takes a lot of practice and hard work to become an accomplished artist. She has certainly experienced some of the frustrations of a beginner but she is committed to staying the course and hopes, one day, to have a show of her own work.

Anne travels extensively to South America with her husband and has begun to experience the joy of taking along a sketchbook and easel on her travels. "It's a completely new life and I find it very exciting!" Being 'on the road' has taken on a whole new meaning for Anne Linden!

Working with seemingly mundane objects and everyday, domestic matter is what inspires and motivates artist/instructor Moira Clark. "Working with the common-place makes the paint look more extraordinary." Her paintings, which consist of acrylics on canvas and watercolour pieces, are explorations of, primarily still-life and familial articles. "The objects have meaning, but they're not as meaningful as the movement they inspire," says the seasoned artist.

After completing a B.F.A. in Visual Art at York University, Moira began exhibiting her paintings in many private and public galleries across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Burnaby Art Gallery and in the USA at the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo. Her upcoming solo exhibit runs from September 9-October 1, 1999 at Tableau Vivant (917 Queen Street West, Toronto, (416) 504-7298) and Moira is also part of a group exhibition at the Harbourfront Centre beginning September 17th and closing at the end of November.

Teaching at the Avenue Road Arts School, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Toronto School of Art has allowed Moira to continue her own learning process as an artist. It gives her the opportunity to explore things she otherwise wouldn't. "Having to verbalize techniques, styles and concepts, makes you aware of the decisions you have to make as an artist."

Making the 'right' decisions as an artist can only come with experience and dedication and this is one of the lessons which Moira hopes her students walk away from her classes with. Sometimes creative exercises can be tedious and frustrating. However, Moira believes that her positive approach to teaching can help her students through any difficult bumps. Even mistakes are a positive and necessary component of her classes. "Making mistakes is part of the process in gaining the expertise needed to be an artist." Helping the student develop his/her own artistic vision and way of working is Moira's prime objective in her Watercolour classes. She hopes that students will develop an eye for 'finding the extraordinary in the ordinary' and want to, like her, "keep doing art forever."

Moira teaches:

Watercolour Painting
Wednesday (9:15 - 11:45 am)
Thursday (7:30 - 10:00 pm)

Further into Watercolour
Friday (9:15 - 11:45 am)

Preparing a Portfolio
(co-taught with Sybil Goldstein)
Monday (9:15 - 11:15 am - Spring only)

Art Discovery Day – A Fun Filled Day!

On Sunday June 13, hundreds of people filled the Avenue Road Arts School to tour the school and participate in hands-on art projects. The annual event, which included portrait and painting demonstrations and art activities for both adults and children, was a huge success.

Participating in the day's fun was CBC personality, Hana Gartner. Ms. Gartner sat as a model for an open portraiture class led by, artist/instructor, Sadko Hadzihasanovic. The next Art Discovery Day is Sunday June 11, 2000.