FAC SW presents: Art in the Neighbourhood
~Jazz ~Food ~Art Show and Sale
Donna Carter
Creative expression is the essence of Donna Carter. Whether it is demonstrated through physical materials or an elegant metaphor, Donna lives to create. Her design background is evident by her intuitive composition and strong colour sense. She graduated from Mount Royal University’s faculty of Interior Design and Architecture in 1981 and practised as a designer for over twenty years Since giving up her interior design business to pursue her second career as a best-selling author and international speaker, she has channelled her aesthetic energy into art.
Exploring painting under the mentorship of Calgary artist Melanie Morstad, she enjoys the creative freedom of combining acrylic inks, paint and mixed media, bold brush strokes, and unexpected mark making. Donna has travelled extensively in the developing world and is passionate about social justice. The people she meets and places she visits influence and inspire her painting. Her work is displayed in various public and private collections.
Art by Donna Carter
Rebecca Ellison
Rebecca Ellison has enjoyed developing her visual arts scope in a variety of media over the past 12 years. She has created pieces using stained glass, archival ink, watercolour, acrylic and gouache painting, linocut prints, polymer clay, alcohol inks, metal leaf and mosaics. Many of her commissioned and purchased art works can be found in private collections. Her favourite series “Nautilus” demonstrates her fascination with the fear and awe inspired by the sea, dovetailed with her keen interest in the Steampunk genre. Rebecca has greatly enjoyed exploring the possibilities within clayboard etching and ink illustrationand plans to continue her practice in this medium.
Rebecca works as a Calgary Board of Education artist-in-residence in numerous elementary and middle schools. She is also currently certifying in the Biomedical Visualization and Communication program at UBC. Rebecca has instructed children and adults in the Inglewood Art & Music School and has also collaborated with Studio C Art Recruits and Accessible Housing Calgary to benefit both mental health and “barrier-free” art creation. She has facilitated many Faith & the Arts sessions for interested artists at First Alliance Church. She is passionate about sharing the love of art, especially with children, and integrating the visual arts into any and every subject of study. It is her belief that within the context of welcoming environments and when equipped with proper materials and facilitation, creating visual art can benefit anyone at any skill level emotionally, spiritually, mentally and/or physically.
Art by Rebecca Ellison
Diana Harris
Diana was born and lived in Winnipeg for over 30 years. She graduated from university with a degree in nursing and worked 20 years in an acute care hospital. She has a great passion for art and an eye for design. She volunteered for Wings of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation for nine years, working closely with jewelry designers to coordinate the jewelry fundraiser campaign.
Diana enrolled in oil painting classes at Swinton’s Art Instruction after moving to Calgary in 1997. Inspired by the great Impressionist painters, the Group of Seven, and many local Canadian artists, she strives to display movement, and explore color in her work. She is drawn towards bold colors and texture. Her artistic style has evolved from contemporary realism to expressionism, and abstraction in oil, acrylic, and multimedia.
Diana continues to develop her personal style and explore new techniques. She joined Parkland Painting Collective in 2016 and was juried into Passionate Painters in 2019. She continues to frequent Swinton’s and Kensington Art Studio and participates in workshops. Over the years she has exhibited her art in a number of exhibitions, contributed many paintings to fundraising events, and has sold many paintings to private collectors.
Art by Diana Harris
Suzanne Artym
Suzanne Artym is an Alberta visual artist who draws inspiration from her natural
environment, extending from her backyard, to the prairies and to the Rocky Mountains.
Familiar subjects such as flower gardens, wildflowers, birds and landscapes find new
life on her canvas. Suzanne’s art education is self-directed through the process of
discovery and learning from workshops, fellow artists and tutorials. The interplay of
colour, texture, and shape have a stunning impact on her acrylic and mixed media work.
“My art work reflects my passion to interpret life as I observe and explore. I have always
been fascinated by the colours, patterns and textures found in nature; whether it is the
dramatic colours of the prairie sky, textures of the Rocky Mountains or the patterns
found in the wings of a butterfly. My hope is the viewer will experience what I see or
make their own connections, but either way, be inspired, uplifted or moved!”
Art by Suzanne Artym
Jeanne Urban
I’m a Canadian artist from a very small and once famous mining town in Northern Ontario but I’ve made Calgary my home for the past 20 years. Cobalt had a thriving artist community and every summer artist colonies would come to town to paint the iconic head frames and twisted streets. We were lucky to have a local artist offer painting classes. This delightful, eccentric, lady had us painting worn out miners boots and rusted out headframes and I loved it.
Although an artist’s career was not in the cards I often felt compelled to paint and needed to satisfy the urge to create by taking classes whenever I could. It was not until retirement that I could truly dedicate myself to painting and after a year of living in fear of failure, I finally jumped into the world of art, immersing myself in courses and workshops one after another to quickly build my skills and get working. I shlepped my paints around in an old wooden box handmade by my grandfather 50 years ago until my paint tubes and supplies outgrew the relic, but it remains close to my heart as a reminder of those who believed in me so long ago.
Our magnificent country offers far too much beauty not to paint the world around me and I love to paint outdoors – en Plein Air – whenever I can. Landscapes are my favourite, I also do portraits and have a collection of images of my children and now grandchildren I paint when our harsh winters keep me inside. I paint in vibrant colour and slip in thick paint and texture wherever I can.
Art by Jeanne Urban
Lena Sawchuk
