Bring Ottawa’s Beauty Inside with Best Canvas

 Are you looking to beautify a living or workspace? Do you want a picture of you and your loved ones or pet on the wall? What about a picture of your favorite pop icon? Or are you a local photographer who wants to showcase your work so that people can

Oasis Painting: Finding the Perfect Paint Colour

 Choosing the right paint colour for your home can be a daunting task. Many homeowners have experienced the frustration of selecting what seems like the perfect shade, only to find that it looks entirely different once applied to their walls. This discrepancy between the paint sample and the final result

Benefits of designing an interior space with wall art

 Having a home with dull and empty walls can be depressing for any individual over a period of time. People are tempted to focus more on furniture and other items when designing a home, leaving out wall art. Your walls should not just be all about paint and wallpaper. Those

Seasons of Catherine Schissel

 All photos courtesy of Catherine Schissel Catherine Schissel has been painting for as long as she can remember. Raised in Kimberley, BC, her father, a game warden, passed on his love for the outdoors to his children. Schissel’s early adulthood was spent raising her four children while farming in southern

Canadian artist Patrick John Mills: an expressionist and abstract painter

 Photos courtesy of Patrick John Mills Canadian artist Patrick John Mills is considered an expressionist and also abstract painter. His artwork has been shown in selected exhibitions in cities that evoke art and sophistication such as London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Montreal and, of course, Ottawa. “Obsessed, intense, creative and also

Anthony Cardozo Explores the Many Facets of the Flag

 It’s something that you see every day: most likely more than once, probably so much that it blends in with its surroundings and momentarily loses its meaning. It is the Canadian flag. With his art show, Interpretations: The Maple Leaf Flag, currently running at the Wild Oat Artisanal Café in

Elly Smallwood, Exploring Human Emotion on a Grand Scale

 Elly Smallwood’s artistry is hard to look away from. The vivid, blurry-edged constructs of her work possess both a surreal and commonplace quality. Her visual aesthetic alone is the mark of a natural, yet studied artist, one who is confident in every stroke of her brush. And that is to

Meet Ottawa Artist Katerina Mertikas

 It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to meet a celebrated Canadian artist. Katerina Mertikas is best-known for her bright and colourful paintings of children playing outdoors in the snow and enjoying the rain under bright umbrellas. The expressionist artist will have a variety of her artwork on

Piecing Together the Abstract

 Photos by Alex Mazur. Have you ever let your mind wander while watching passing clouds floating through the sky? Suddenly those white wisps look like a sailboat, or that fluffy cloud looks unmistakably like a cuddly bunny. This psychological phenomenon is called pareidolia, an instance where the mind recognizes familiar

A Portrait of Canada

 Canada is a place of boundless natural beauty, and part of being Canadian means appreciating the natural wonders of where we live. Few understand this better than Leah Pipe, the BC-based artist who pens the awe-inspiring beauty of the Skeena Watershed area in Northern British Colombia. Beautifully arresting, rivetingly detailed and quietly absorbing, Pipe’s

A Dash of Colour: Getting to Know Sara Alex Mullen

 Sara Alex Mullen knew she had found her artistic calling when she made the final brushstroke on her first landscape painting. The local artist has been painting for 15 years, but discovered her real affinity for capturing the Canadian outdoors while taking courses at the Ottawa School of Art in

The Wow Factor

 LEESA FRANKLIN AND LEESHA CUNNINGHAM, OTTAWA OWNERS OF WOW 1 DAY PAINTING BEGAN THEIR ADVENTURE TOGETHER A MERE THREE-AND-A-HALF YEARS AGO. While watching Undercover Boss Canada, Franklin and Cunningham spotted a segment on WOW 1 DAY Painting, and it immediately caught their eye. "We connected with the concept of a

Get Happening in Hintonburg

 All photos by Andre Gagne Hintonburg is a neighbourhood that always seems to be changing and accepting of new and fresh ideas. Case in point, did you know that in 1896 it was the first place in Canada to show a newfangled idea called moving pictures when a film was

January 15th to 17th

 Here at Ottawa Life we are always looking out for great things to do on a weekend! Check out some of the events that are happening right here in our city this weekend. TD Place Stadium, Ottawa 67’s vs. Niagara IceDogs - Jan.15th (7:00pm) This Friday, come support your local OHL

A Short History of Jeanne Henry Côté

 Jeanne Henry Côté received her first drawing contract at the age of five. “Someone needed a drawing done by a five year old child. I was free to draw what I wanted, so I drew a turkey in a pan ready to go to the oven.” By the seventh grade, Côté

Artist Eric Fischl at the NGC

 Copyright 2014, Eric Fischl. All Rights Reserved. A former security guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Eric Fischl has made himself one of this century’s most influential American painters and sculptors. Fischl will be discussing his work at the National Gallery of Canada tomorrow as part of

Take a Look Inside Jordan Clayton

 "Toxoplasmic Encephalitis," Oil on Linen, 127 x 132, 2015. If you stepped into Jordan Clayton’s studio, it might take you a minute to find anything out of place. The room in his Toronto apartment has just about everything you’d expect. There’s a wall with giant canvases leaning against it, brushes,

Playing Chicken: The line between beauty and tension in Andrew Moncrief’s “Unseen”

 Moncrief stands in front of paintings featured in this month's exhibit. All photos by Kerri Fukui. Andrew Moncrief is a 28-year-old artist who’s talented enough to create beautiful, classically styled figures, and brave enough to smear paint over their faces. His latest exhibition, a collection of portraits called “Unseen,” is

Westboro Artists “Paint-Out” in Winston Square

 Artist Barbara Zuchowicz paints in Winston Square.  If you go for a stroll by Winston Square this summer you might get to witness the artistic process firsthand. Artists from the West End Studio Tour will gather in the square to paint, sketch and display their work for the public once a week from

Pick Zaac For Your Weekend Concert

 Zaac Pick will have Ottawa stargazing with his performance at the Black Sheep Inn on May 7, where he will be sharing songs from his new folk-pop album Constellations. The Vancouver-based singer-songwriter released his debut full-length album last month. Co-produced by Jonathan Anderson, the album was recorded over a span

Eat, Drink, pARTy

 Artist: David Kaarsemaker Looking for new artwork to freshen up your home? The Ottawa Art Gallery’s leading fundraising event Le pARTy Art Auction will lead you to the perfect piece! On Thursday, May 21, prepare to be whisked away in a cultural fantasy land surrounded by Ottawa’s best food, drinks and

The Natural Way: Native Artist Peter Bighetty

 For native artist Peter Bighetty, art begins with a memory. Hailing from Nelson House, Manitoba, Bighetty’s family is originally from Pukatawagan Cree Nation. “Growing up, I was always fishing, trapping, and hunting, out and about in the wilderness. That’s where I get the ideas for most of my paintings,” Bighetty

Orange Art Gallery: Pushing boundaries in the capital community

 Following a trip to NYC with husband and co-owner Matthew Jeffrey four years ago, Ingrid Hollander felt that Ottawa needed a contemporary gallery willing to take big risks. “We found that galleries here had a much more retail-oriented, commercial focus. We wanted to provide a cool space that could showcase

Claudia Salguero–100 per cent Artist in Everything she Does

 Claudia Salguero is a photographer and graphic designer. She also paints, sculpts, creates digital images and sings Latin jazz professionally. Salguero moved to Ottawa from Bogotá, Colombia, in 2001. She found opportunity in Ottawa so she never left. “I’ve been able to make my way because I do many things. I

The DIY Backsplash

 There are several affordable ways you can incorporate some design wow into your interior space. One of those ways is with the kitchen backsplash. Not only will this protect your walls and add visual appeal, but it will also add architectural depth to the space. I still remember the completion