Faculty
Venezuelan-born Canadian artist Sonia Arenas graduated from the Ottawa School of Art and over the last fifteen years, has worked as an art advisor, designed and taught courses for children, and exhibited her work in Canada, Europe and Latin America.
As an art instructor, Sonia feels a great love in teaching. She also has experience in homeschooling and teaching children with diverse intellectual abilities.
Sonia has developed her body of work in painting and sculpture, also showing special interest in photography and mixed media. Her artwork has been focused in the essence of the human being, particularly the indigenous people and women.
David Barbour teaches Introduction to Photography in the Diploma program as well as other photography classes in the adult general interest.
Highlights to his career include a Mid-Career Canada Council to continue his project in Havana (1999) as well as a World’s Press Award (1985) for a photograph he took in Egypt.
His current work primarily balances beauty and environmental issues that are found in both rural and urban environments.
See his work at www.davidbarbour.ca or on Facebook or Instagram.
Marg Boyle has been a professional artist, art educator, curator and consultant for over thirty years. She is a graduate of the NSCAD University (BFA Fine Arts, Minor Art History (87) and BFA Art Education (88)) and has also done graduate and inservice courses in Art Education, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Education, Special Education, Writing Therapy. Illustration and Graphic Design and Teaching of English Language Learners at several universities/colleges. During her thirty years of teaching in the K-12 school system, she taught diverse Visual Arts and Indigenous Studies courses as well as ESL, Special Education and Student Success.
Marg is the founder of FNMIEAO.com, The Eagle and Condor Collective and a member of the Native Immigrant Arts collective in Montreal. Marg is now a full time artist, and craftsperson (beading, quillwork, hidework, drum making, rattle making, basketry and sewing). She is also a community arts activist, a drummer, a dancer and a writer. She encourages all students to learn about the ancestral knowledge and art forms of the land on which they live and has taught at OSA for a total of over ten years. She has taught Art Education and Indigenous Education courses at Queens U, U of Ottawa and OISE/ U of Toronto and currently teaches at QueensU in the Continuing Teacher Education program. She is also now an Artist in Residence at Concordia University’s Art Education Dept. and is a recipient of several grants including a Canada Council Aboriginal project grant.
Jayne Couch SCA, has been teaching at the OSA since 2013.
A classically trained oil painter, Jayne studied drawing and painting in Paris France, New York city and across Canada.
An elected member of the Society of Canadian Artist Jayne also sat on that board and was the Chair of her municipality’s first Arts & Culture Board
Jayne’s exhibition, ‘Drawing Deconstructed’ at The Studio Gallery, Queens University dept of Ed., opened September 2023. Her latest series of ‘Works on Paper’ returned to Preston Square in Ottawa, January 2024.
Learn more about what’s happening at j.CouchMolony.ca
Vanessa Dewson is an award-winning professional photographer, graphic and web designer based in Ottawa. She began teaching photography at the Ottawa School of Art in 2013. In 2015, she founded Focus on Photography Tours to combine her passions of photography, teaching and travel.
Vanessa received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Image Arts: Film Studies from Ryerson University in 1998 and pursued photography as a hobby until she decided to become a full-time professional in 2007. She received both her Craftsman of Photographic Arts (CPA) and Master of Photographic Arts (MPA) from the Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC). Her work has been exhibited as part of the annual Instructors Show at the Shenkman Arts Centre and a solo exhibit at the Galerie Eugène-Racette in Orleans. Her travel stories and images have been published in BBC Travel, the Toronto Star, and several print magazines and online publications.
She is fully bilingual and loves sharing her passion and knowledge with fellow photography enthusiasts whether in a classroom or as a host on photo tours.
For more information, please visit her website: www.vanessadewson.com or
Adrian Gor’s work combines writing, egg-tempera painting, relief printing, and hand crafted organic materials. His medieval-inspired multi-processed techniques of line making and gilding, drives him to question todays symbols of human desire and containers of truth in our visual culture. For details of his artistic vision see his latest essay, “Reimagining the iconic in New Media Art,” published in Theory, Culture, and Society, SAGE Journals (2019). Adrian has completed his PhD in the Humanities (Interdisciplinary) Program at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada (2015) combining studies in Theology/Philosophy, Art History, and Studio Arts. He also has an MFA in Drawing/Painting from the School of Visual Arts, University of Windsor (2010).
Personal website: www.adriangor.com
I was born in Argentina where I lived half of my life. In 1992 I moved to Canada. I also lived for 5 years in the USA. I travelled extensively for a 10-year period acquiring a significant multicultural background.
I have university degrees in Mathematics and Physics and worked mostly in the IT/Computing fields until 2001 when, for health reasons, I decided to retire from the high-stress world and follow my passion: arts and social advocacy.
Arts run in my blood from both: my father’s and mother’s sides. I was born in a house with a dark room! I’m also a 4th generation photographer (as far back as I can trace it) and grew up in environments of painters, photographers and theatre actors.
Past exhibits include galleries and exhibits in Ottawa (Ont), Toronto (Ont), Montreal (Qbc) and Vancouver (BC).
As a photographer and artist, I focus mostly on portraiture, nature, artistic nudes and Advocacy art: Anti-imperialism/colonialism, antipoverty, antiracism, gender rights, Gay & HIV anti-stigmatization, and visualization of marginal social sectors. I always look for an expression of beauty in the art I am working on.
As a teacher, I focus mostly on the communication of the student’s personal exploration in regard to the photography or art being taught.
My web site is https://www.gustavo1960.ca/
Maya Hum, originally from the Maritimes, moved to Ottawa to pursue her BA Honours degree in Music and Sonic Design at Carleton University. She furthered her studies at the Ottawa School of Art, and was awarded the Robert Hyndman Painting & Drawing Scholarship. Soon after, Maya exhibited her work and secured her first Artist Residency in Toronto.
In 2010, Maya completed her graduate studies in Professional Illustration and was selected for the City of Ottawa’s Artist Studio Program the following year. Her passion for illustration and design has led to her work being featured in publications, campaigns, and exhibitions across Canada, including public murals in Ottawa and the Gatineau Hills, Quebec.
Maya’s art is deeply inspired by stories that prioritize the well-being for individuals, communities, and the environment. She delights in creating nature-based settings that strike a delicate balance between reality and imagination, inviting viewers into a whimsical and thought-provoking world.
With over 10 years of teaching experience at the Ottawa School of Art, Maya remains dedicated to providing comfortable and encouraging environments for her students. For more information, visit www.mayahum.com.
Marika Jemma has been a visual artist in professional practice for more than 20 years, beginning with her first solo show: Journey To The Temple (Victoria, B.C.) in 1991. Marika works primarily in the mediums of sculptural installation and video, combining natural and manufactured objects to create culturally astute statements that cut to the heart of what matters.
Born 1963 in West Toronto, enduring a non-descript Catholic childhood and surviving the banality of a whitewashed suburban existence in the pursuit of modest personal debt, Marika left home at 17 to experience the joys of minimum wage, public transportation and a series of rooming houses in various dissociated communities in southern Ontario.
An independent learner, Marika has explored the public libraries of most of the major cities in Canada.
On a rainy day in 1982, Marika moved to Vancouver Island where she spent the next 11 years pursuing a series of odd-jobs (including theatrical production, sound and lighting), training as a carpenter and finally graduating from art school in 1991.
In 1993, Marika drove back across the country in a 1973 Toyota Corolla, dropped the muffler on a raised railway bed in southern Saskatchewan and ran out of gas in Ottawa and has been here ever since.
Marika teaches teen sculpture and mixed media, as well various summer camps at the Ottawa School of Art.
From an early age, David was captivated by both art and science. He chose a career in Aerospace Engineering and was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Prize for his undergraduate studies. Prior to embracing the world of art, David had a successful career in Aerospace and Information Technology. He continues his association with the engineering profession as a Chartered Engineer.
David’s innate love of art drew him to creating and teaching. For the past 14 years, David has taught at the Ottawa School of Art. He has also developed a successful visual arts workshop practice in partnership his spouse France. Together, they have completed over 150 Break-a-Brush® workshops and courses. Their studio, plein-air and on-line programs are a hit with novices and experienced artists alike and David is in demand with clubs and private groups throughout the region.
David published his first book “Eighteen Pieces” in 2021 and a second “One Summer along the Trans Canada Trail – Plein-air Painting in Ottawa-Gatineau” earlier this year. David and France are currently working on a third publication, scheduled for release in 2024.
In her more than 25 years-spinning practice of a watercolour artist, graphic and ornamental designer, she put her skills and experience into teaching at Ottawa School of Art (since 2016), where she shares with students her ability to create lustful watercolours, to explore the picturesque manner, applying with bold and colourful acrylic brushstrokes and precise, meticulous drawings.
Her first steps in the professional art career happened to become visible during her “previous life” in Moscow, Russia, as she mentions her studies in the Fine Art college, years that she practiced as a ceramic artist, co-owner of a ceramic art studio and an artist, working on the permanent contract with a Paleontological Museum in Moscow. “International exhibitions, big projects in Germany, Sweden, UK, Canada, US, guided and supported by the local municipalities, all that steps and accomplishments made me feel more familiar with modern, contemporary trends and tendencies, dominating around the globe – and I will be so glad to bring all these nuances to my artworks, to share all that with my students and with my audience,” – she said.
Since the 2017, right after she got her international credentials re-evaluated and enhanced in Ottawa School of Art, she has been also teaching in the Glebe Community Centre and in the Abbotsford House. “The moments when our attendees feel that their accomplishments look really professional, striking or worth exposing around Ottawa, are such the best outcome that every art instructor ever dreamed of; that is why we do our creative researches, explore variety of techniques, just to have a chance to share it with all of our students” – she says.
Ink painting is a sensual experience…it engages all the senses and completely captures my attention. Ink has its own way of moving and creating a bond between the brush, the paper and the mind and heart of the painter. Ink has life.
My fascination with the medium of ink as it is used in Chinese and Japanese art is a passion that began many years ago. In 1999, I began formal study of Japanese calligraphy and sumi-e with Sensei Tomoko Kodama, who was also my honoured mentor for teaching, and continued my studies later on with other master artists Sensei Kaz Tanahashi, Sensei Hekuin Oda of the Oda Calligraphy School in Illinois, and Master Rujin Qin in Ottawa. Since 2010, I’ve been teaching at the Ottawa School of Art and I hold seasonal workshops or short courses at the upstairs studio at East Wind, as well elsewhere in my community.
My focus remains firmly rooted in the traditional practices of shodo (Zen calligraphy) but I am always working to create new pieces and explore new avenues of expression in both shodo and sumi-e (ink painting). There are strong elements of impressionism in this genre, and of the gestural, and the avant-garde. It is the power of line. Both shodo and sumi-e have moved beyond the traditional use of rice papers to include other surfaces such as print-making papers and canvas; in addition to water-based mediums, acrylics are also being used in this genre.
But the new has not displaced the old, however; traditional methods inform and support the contemporary approaches. Old and new methods co-exist peacefully and continue to excite.
An ‘underground’ interest in North America is becoming more mainstream as once distant cultures move closer together.
Teaching sumi-e and calligraphy has led me to so many joyful moments with my students, and I thank them for sharing their achievements with me as we journey together in The Way of the Brush. www.TheWayofTheBrush.com
Maya Hum, originally from the Maritimes, moved to Ottawa to pursue her BA Honours degree in Music and Sonic Design at Carleton University. She furthered her studies at the Ottawa School of Art, and was awarded the Robert Hyndman Painting & Drawing Scholarship. Soon after, Maya exhibited her work and secured her first Artist Residency in Toronto.
In 2010, Maya completed her graduate studies in Professional Illustration and was selected for the City of Ottawa’s Artist Studio Program the following year. Her passion for illustration and design has led to her work being featured in publications, campaigns, and exhibitions across Canada, including public murals in Ottawa and the Gatineau Hills, Quebec.
Maya’s art is deeply inspired by stories that prioritize the well-being for individuals, communities, and the environment. She delights in creating nature-based settings that strike a delicate balance between reality and imagination, inviting viewers into a whimsical and thought-provoking world.
With over 10 years of teaching experience at the Ottawa School of Art, Maya remains dedicated to providing comfortable and encouraging environments for her students. For more information, visit www.mayahum.com.
Lindsay Watson is a contemporary oil painter, based in Ottawa, who finds inspiration in the world around her. Starting with photographs, (all her own), of the small, strange, or strangely beautiful moments of her life, such as toys strewn on the floor, kitchen scenes, or landscapes, Watson upcycles this imagery into contemporary oil paintings that range from nearly abstract to photorealistic. Using brushes, palette knives, squeegees, spatulas, or whatever else she can find in her kitchen, Watson takes a fresh approach to a classical art form.
Influenced by genre painters, such as Vermeer and Mary Pratt, Watson believes that all emotions can be expressed through simple imagery. As such, she combines light, colour, and paint application with everyday scenes, to make works that are at times playful, tender, or brooding.
Watson is a BFA graduate of the University of Ottawa who has shown in several venues in Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto.
