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Top 10 Canadian Painters

Top 10 Canadian Painters to follow on Instagram

Canada is home to a vibrant and diverse arts scene, and social media platforms like Instagram have given top Canadian painters a platform to showcase their work to a global audience. Instagram has become a powerhouse platform for discovering new artists from all over the world. It provides a unique space where artists can showcase their work and connect with a global audience of art lovers, collectors, and enthusiasts.

Compositional Study for They Walk Softly on This Earth 2022 Acrylic on Canvas 24″ x 36″ Kent Monkman

Instagram’s visual nature is perfect for showcasing artwork. Artists can share images of their work, behind-the-scenes shots of their creative process, and even videos of their work in progress. This provides viewers with an immersive experience that allows them to appreciate the artwork in a way that wouldn’t be possible through other mediums. The social nature of this visual platform allows for direct connections between artists and their audiences. This allows artists to build a community of fans and supporters, and it also allows audiences to engage with artists and their work on a personal level. This creates a sense of intimacy and connection that can be hard to achieve through other platforms.

Victoria BC based artist, Brandy Saturley, in her studio.

Here are 10 of the top Canadian painters to follow on Instagram;

Kent Monkman – This Toronto-based artist explores themes of Indigenous identity, sexuality, and colonialism in his bold and provocative paintings.
Tim Okamura – This New York-based artist explores themes of race, identity, and representation in his powerful and expressive portraits.
Kim Dorland – A Toronto-based artist known for his textured and expressive paintings of Canadian landscapes and urban scenes.
David McLeod – A digital artist and painter whose bold and vibrant works explore the intersection of technology and nature.
Brandy Saturley – Based in Victoria, BC, Saturley’s pop art style paintings capture the beauty and diversity of Canada’s landscapes and people.
Peter Doig – A Scottish-born painter who has spent much of his career in Canada, Doig’s dreamlike and atmospheric paintings capture the beauty and mystery of Canadian landscapes.
Jeremy Herndl – Victoria BC based Canadian painter focusing on the human relationship to place.
Jen Mann – Toronto, On based painter whos work mainly focuses on the idea of self in a post-internet world.
Andrew Valko – Winnipeg, MB based hyperrealist painter, drive-in movie scenes and conceptual nudes
Christie Belcourt – Following the tradition of Métis floral beadwork, Belcourt paints in dots and uses the subject matter as metaphors for human existence to relay a variety of meanings which include concerns for the environment, biodiversity, spirituality and awareness of Métis culture.

Christi Belcourt working in her studio, 2021

These are just a few of the many talented Canadian painters on Instagram. Whether you’re looking for landscapes, portraits, or abstract works, there’s sure to be an artist on this list who will inspire and delight you. So why not give them a follow and see what they’re up to?

May 4, 2023

Featured Article Island Arts

PRESS

Spring Issue Island Arts Magazine Featured Article

Featured in the Spring 2023 Issue of the Island Arts Magazine (IAM) an article written by Brandy Saturley about her time working in the Leighton Studios at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity.

The Island Arts Magazine, or IAM for short, is based in Parksville on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The Spring 2023 issue marks the beginning of their 16th year publishing this magazine about local Vancouver Island artists as well as Artists across Canada. The Island Arts Magazine has become an interactive digital publication covering artistic events, art exhibitions, workshops, editorial content on everything Canadian Art. For the first several years the focus of this art publication was Vancouver Island Artists. Over the years they were able to expand their reach to the mainland, and later all of BC. During the pandemic they expanded their offering becoming a digital magazine, presenting art and artists from across Canada – Coast to Coast.

In this 63rd issue of the magazine you can read an article by Brandy Saturley about her experience as artist in residence at the Banff Centre. Saturley spent two weeks in the Leighton Studios creating new work informed by her time in Banff and on campus. The Banff Centre is the largest arts institution in Western Canada. The Leighton Artist Studios are home to ten distinct studios, nestled in the forested area of the campus. The studios provide a creative haven to a variety of disciplines: writing for stage and screen, composing and songwriting, visual arts including painting, photography, literary translation, curating, and art theory.

Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity – Banff, Alberta

A contemporary Canadian artist whose work captures the essence of Canadian life and culture.

Saturley typically works from her home studio on Vancouver Island, surrounded by the stunning natural beauty of Canada’s west coast. Her paintings often reflect this connection to nature, with sweeping landscapes, rugged mountains, and vivid skies and central figures featuring prominently in her work. Her use of bold colors and dynamic brushstrokes creates a sense of energy and movement, and her work has been described as “joyful, emotional, and thought-provoking.”

In addition to her focus on nature, Saturley also explores themes of identity, community, and belonging in her work. Many of her paintings feature Canadian icons such as hockey players, Canadian wildlife, and maple leaves, highlighting her deep connection to her home country.

Saturley travels across Canada to exhibit, create, capture imagery and work from her experiences. She creates visual stories on canvas about moments experienced on her adventures, coming home to Vancouver Island to work from her North Saanich based studio.

More about Saturley’s time at Banff Centre here.

Read the entire issue of Island Arts Magazine here:

March 3, 2023

Banff Centre Painting Residency

Art Career

Leighton Studios – Banff Centre For Arts & Creativity Painting Residency

In November 2022, I will be spending two weeks at the Banff Centre For Arts & Creativity. An independent self-guided painting residency (on scholarship) in the Leighton Artists Studios, home to ten distinct studios, appealing to a variety of disciplines: writing for stage and screen, composing and songwriting, visual arts including painting, photography, curating, and art theory. I am looking forward to immersing myself in the pristine natural surroundings and mountain fresh air, letting all my senses soak it up and then push it out onto the canvas. I will be capturing my time in Banff through photography, video and paint. Banff is a place I have visited, but never had the time to pause and soak it up for two full weeks.

Thom Studio at Banff Centre, Leighton Studios Residency

The studios have played host to many important Canadian artist collaborations over the years including K.D Lang, Joni Mitchell, and Jean Grand-Maître of Alberta Ballet. Séan McCann of Great Big Sea and Canadian Visual Artist Brian Jungen. Banff Centre exists for the advancement of creative potential that enriches our world, and I am ready for this new opportunity to go deep into my painting practice. To experience the power of the mountains, particularly our home on Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain and let it flow through me and out to the world.

My last experience painting in a faraway place was in 2019 when I spent the summer at the Royal College of Art in London, England, painting in the Sackler studios. It will be quite the contrast making work in the mountains as opposed to the big city. I will be painting in the Thom Studio, named after the studio’s designer, Ron Thom, the configuration for this visual art studio is simple and open to allow the greatest degree of flexibility in the arrangement of working components.

They say that In Banff, the mountains are really close to your head, and you will be seeing my head near these mountains soon.

October 3, 2022

Canadian Artists Painting Mountains

Canadian Art, Collaboration

Two Canadian artists painting mountains on the Continental Divide.

How do two Canadian artists painting mountains, in different provinces, come together to collaborate on paintings that separate their practices?

Snow Dome, acrylic on canvas, Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer

In early 2017, my “Canadianisms” began their solo exhibition tour across Alberta, and as part of promoting the tour and getting to know the arts community of Alberta, I attended the CARFAC AGM in Edmonton at CARFAC Alberta. Previously, Visual Arts Alberta, it was where my first solo show of paintings inspired by Canadian culture and hockey were exhibited under the title, #ICONICCANUCK in 2014. At this AGM I met a painter by the name of Gisa Mayer, a landscape painter from Calgary, by way of the Bavarian Alps, where the painter spent her early years.

Over that year, Mayer and I began to develop a connection and friendship, inspired by our shared love of the outdoors, hiking and the iconic mountains of the Rocky Mountain range. By the end of 2017 we had decided that we would begin a collaborative project, inspired by our shared loves. Inspired by famous collaborations of art history past, such as Warhol and Basquiat, Johns and Rauschenberg, and Rivera & Kahlo – this was going to be interesting as in our case we live 1059KM apart, a 13 hour drive and a ferry boat.

We began with the idea of painting mountain peaks on the continental divide, the border between BC and Alberta. Painting on rolled canvas, for ease of shipping back an fourth between provinces. Mayer, in her sweeping textured strokes and soft palette would begin with sky and foreground, then shipping the canvas to me in BC where I would take on mountains and trees. Sometimes I would begin the canvas and start with sky and mountain, each time was a new experience and each time a new challenge. With my saturated and bold palettes and pop realism aesthetic, our styles couldn’t be more different but seemed to be perfect compliments to one another.

Robson, acrylic on canvas, 2017, Brandy Saturley & Gisa Mayer

We began painting at the end of 2017 and have completed 6 canvasses to date, with a plan to begin exhibiting the work in 2020. Two female artists, one from Alberta and one BC, painting mountain forms on the great continental divide, the mountains on the Alberta/BC border. Each painting is shipped back and fourth across the border, until complete. Each painting rendered in brushstrokes from each artist. Each painting a collaborative effort and celebration of two styles, creating a new language, expressing a combined love of the Rockies. Beyond the borders of the paintings, and beyond the borders that divide two provinces that have been locked into a political battle over a pipeline. Moving us beyond the borders of our differences, and bringing us together, over art.

In honour of Group of Seven luminary, Lawren Harris, we selected a name under which to paint, now known as the Mountain Forms Collective.

UPDATE: March 2020 a virtual 3D exhibition was presented online with Kunstmatrix Berlin – Together/Divided featuring mountain paintings created by both artists as well as individual works from each artists; oeuvre. An online preview in the time of COVID-19.

Museum/Gallery? Curator inquiries?

Two Canadian Artists Painting Mountains – more about Mountain Forms Collective

The Canadian landscape has been a source of inspiration for countless artists over the years, with its majestic mountains, serene lakes, and sweeping prairies offering endless possibilities for creative expression. Two Canadian artists who have captured the beauty of the country’s mountains in their paintings are Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer.

Saturley is a contemporary Canadian artist known for her bold and colorful paintings, often depicting iconic Canadian landscapes and cultural motifs. Her series of mountain paintings, which she created while visiting Banff, Alberta, are a testament to her love of the natural beauty of the region. Saturley’s paintings feature vibrant colors and bold brushstrokes, giving her mountain landscapes a dynamic and energetic feel. Her use of light and shadow creates a sense of depth and perspective, drawing the viewer into the scene and making them feel as though they are standing in the midst of the mountains.

Mount Temple, 36×48 acrylic on canvas, 2011, Brandy Saturley

Gisa Mayer is another Canadian artist who has captured the majesty of the country’s mountains in her paintings. Mayer’s work is characterized by its rich colors and textures, with her mountain landscapes featuring sweeping brushstrokes and layers of thick paint. She uses a variety of techniques to create a sense of movement and energy in her paintings, giving them a dynamic and almost sculptural quality. Mayer’s mountain paintings are often large in scale, adding to their grandeur and sense of awe-inspiring majesty.

Looking Out, acrylic on canvas, 2023, Gisa Mayer

Both Saturley and Mayer’s mountain paintings are a celebration of Canada’s natural beauty and a testament to the power of art to capture and convey the essence of a place. Through their use of color, brushstrokes, and composition, these artists have created a sense of awe and wonder in their mountain landscapes, inviting viewers to experience the grandeur and majesty of Canada’s mountains in a new and profound way.

In conclusion, Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer are two Canadian artists who have captured the beauty and grandeur of the country’s mountains in their paintings. Through their use of color, brushstrokes, and composition, they have created works of art that convey the essence of these majestic landscapes, inviting viewers to experience the awe-inspiring power of Canada’s mountains in a new and profound way.

Mt. Temple, acrylic on canvas, Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer

Brandy Saturley is an award-winning painter, photographer, and writer born and living on Vancouver Island. Her widely exhibited “Canadianisms” series, with it’s ‘pop realism’ aesthetic, have garnered the Canadian artist notoriety as the Voice of Canadian Pop Art. Exhibitions in unique corporate venues include; Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, TELUS Convention Centre at Glenbow Museum, Canadian Tire, Canadian Olympic Committee headquarters and on LED billboards in Times Square, NYC. Saturley has contributed articles to ArtInCanada.com, ArtistsInCanada.com, Reader’s Digest Our Canada. Her work was shortlisted for the Olympic Trophy in Sport & Art in 2014. Solo public gallery exhibitions include Gallery @501 Strathcona County and Okotoks Art Gallery. Brandy is an active arts advocate serving as public art juror (City of Saanich), professional development speaker and member of CARFAC Alberta.

Gisa Mayer is a painter born in the Bavarian Alps, known for her fluid brushstrokes creating sweeping mountainscapes. Her post graduate experience includes training in Painting, Art History and a degree in Romance Languages. Her work experience includes the Carolino Augusteum Museum in Salzburg and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. After working and teaching for many years in Salzburg, she made Calgary her permanent home in 1997, after falling in love with the Rockies. Mayer is represented by Bugera Matheson in Edmonton and Ruberto Ostberg in Calgary. Gisa is an active arts advocate in the Alberta arts community and has served on the board of CARFAC Alberta and is a member of the Leighton Arts Centre. Collected by private and public clients internationally.

January 6, 2021

Collectors Art

Buying Art, Canadian Art

Collectors Art: curated art collections, ready for you to purchase.

In our first article about curated art collections, we talked about the inception of the idea for these collectors art boxes, crated and ready for you to purchase.

The first release of ‘BOX SETS’ in March was a great success. A limited time offering to own curated art collections; ready to hang in your home, corporate art collection or office. With the first limited time offering, we presented five distinct hand painted art crates filled with various sizes of important original fine artworks, paintings created by Canadian artist, Brandy Saturley. With the first five crates we offered a range of sizes from small artworks in the 12″ x 12″ size to larger artworks such as 30″ x 40″ and 36″ x 36″. These art collections ranged in price from $3000.00 to $29,000.00. With this second release of fine art to collect, we are going bigger, not only in the size of artworks available, but in the size of the art collections contained within each crate.

Crate #6 is a stunner! The paintings of Canadian Artist Brandy Saturley, are stories of the landscape told using brush on canvas. These artworks are vivid love letters inspired by Canada and beyond. This crate contains a wealth of art; not only in value, but also in beauty. The ‘Beauty’ collection includes six original fine artworks painted between 2010 and 2017. Artworks included in this collection feature iconic Canadian landscapes such as; views of Lake Louise from Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Babel, Robson and Assiniboine mountains from the Rocky Mountain range, the commemorative Canada150 tulip, the red maple leaf, and red poppies. These paintings are more than your average landscape painting, much more. Employing the artists’ signature vivid and saturated palette and utilizing abstract form and shape, these landscapes tell stories far beyond the landscapes themselves. Offering you, the collector, the ultimate way to invest in an art collection. Pre-selected and ready to hang, with the finest coated hanging wire professionally affixed to the back of each piece. Making collecting original fine art online, easy.

More than landscapes, I am telling visual stories.

“I am continually and obsessively consuming this world and expressing it vividly on canvas, I am not just painting what I see, I am painting the story of what I see. I am continually collecting experiences, spurned by my travels. My excavation of the world around me begins with exploring, I am continually exploring the world, and drinking it all in, through my eyes, ears, nose and tongue. As I move throughout the world, I am continually collecting and re-imagining. I am a storyteller, but not the writing kind, words are not my forte and reading a book can take years. With everything I experience my mind begins to draw, so as reading can inspire thoughts and images in my head, it can also impede me from finishing a chapter as my mind begins to paint.

Most of the paintings you see, begin with an idea and a photograph, I begin with a central theme or focal point and then the brush tells me where to go. I do not plan out my paintings from beginning to end, I do not begin with a number of sketches or rigorous blueprint. I have tried creating from sketches, and while they are a great starting point, much like my photos, they are just the point of inception. Once the painting begins, the painting tells me where to go, and it doesn’t always work out, and this allows for innovation. I drink it all in, and then I paint it all out. I make art because it is what I have done my whole life. I never really had a choice in the matter, art chose me and I obliged. My biggest fear is that I will die with all these ideas left in my head, and yet the more art I make, the more I have to make. Art never sleeps and the job of an artist never ends.”

As for the crate that the paintings are safely stored within, it is imbued with it’s own signature artwork.

There are many passionate stories being expressed in this art collection. Below we will highlight each painting with a comment about each piece from the artist.

Here are ‘THE PAINTINGS’ in BOX SET #6:

Poppies For Louise

A painting of ruby red poppies on the shore of Lake Louise with a signature red canoe, turquoise waters, glaciers and mountain in the background – Canadian flag imposed. A love letter to Lake Louise, this piece is inspired by the composition of the Canadian Flag set against the turquoise blue waters of Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. The red canoe, features the number nine, the most star worn number in professional hockey and the NHL. An ode to Canada, from sea to sky and sport to nature.

2. Patchwork Nation

A painting of a Canadian Maple Leaf on an aerial view of the prairies and the multicolored crops and lines as seen by air when you fly over Mantioba and Saskatchewan. Canada is a Patchwork Nation and this piece is a re-imagining of the Canadian flag against the abstract aerial view of the prairie crops.

3. Assiniboine

This painting is my representation of Mount Assiniboine, a pyramidal peak mountain on the Great Divide on the BC/Alberta border. This peak is nicknamed, ‘the Matterhorn of the Rockies’, for it’s resemblance to the Matterhorn in the Alps. I imagined Warhol painting these peaks, with his POP Art palette. In total there are 13 peaks in this series, some of the most famous and least known peaks in the Rocky Mountain range from BC to Alberta.

4. Robson

This painting is my representation of Mt. Robson, it is the most prominent mountain in the Rocky Mountain range and the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. Bordering BC and Alberta, Mt. Robson is awe-inspiring and takes your breath away as you drive into the park and hike to the base of the mountain. In 2010, I found myself on a new journey, this time travelling through the land of giants, the Rocky Mountains of the Western Canadian Landscape. I felt utterly alone in a hauntingly impressive landscape as I watched sunrise paint these snowy peaks, casting shadows and vivid shades of blue, purple, orange, blue-green depending on time of day and position of the sun or moon. From the Group of Seven to Robert Genn, these mountains have romanced many and the love affair continues.

5. Babel

Part of the, ‘I See Mountains’ series inspired by peaks in the Canadian Rocky Mountain range from BC to Alberta. Mount Babel is a peak in the Bow Range in Banff, Alberta that bears a resemblance to the tower of From the Group of Seven to Warhol, these mountains have romanced many and the love affair continues.

6. Charity

My expression of the Canada150 tulip. The most common meaning for tulips is perfect or deep love. Because tulips are one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, they can mean rebirth. Victorians often associated tulips with charity, and the Dutch associate tulips with “Thanks” to Canadian soldiers that liberated The Netherlands in World War II.

As for the crate that the paintings are safely stored within, imbued with it’s own signature artwork. As seen below;

This crate safely houses the artworks of BOX SET #6, is painted with a graphic rendering of the painting ‘Poppies For Louise’ which is contained within the crate itself.

On the reverse side of the crate the words, ‘Beauty Day’ emblazon the crate – a common saying in Canada on a beautiful sunny day.

Art to talk about for generations to come, view the collections now.

June 3, 2019

Exhibition Papermill Gallery Toronto

Art Opening

Exhibition Papermill Gallery Toronto: Timely painting depicting a polar bear balancing on an iceberg on display

New artwork by Brandy Saturley will be unveiled by the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) at the 50th International Juried Art Exhibition at Papermill Gallery in Toronto, Ontario. The show runs July 24 – August 19, 2018 at Papermill Gallery at Todmorden Mills Museum, 69 Pottery Road in Toronto, Canada. The painting depicting a polar bear balancing at the peak of an iceberg, upheld by a human hand is a timely piece that speaks to global warming an the need to preserve what soon could be extinct. The painting is part of a new body of work that Saturley has been developing following her ‘Canadianisms’ exhibitions of 2017. Join us July 26, 2018 Official Opening and Awards Presentation, Thursday evening 7:00 to 9:30pm.

The painting shows life in balance – the elevation of the spirit through the landscape, and in this case, the Northern landscapes, with icebergs, polar bears and aurora skies. Whether it be Alaska or Newfoundland, these icebergs are precious natural resources. A timely painting as climate change continues to erode the polar bear’s natural habitat.

Papermill Gallery Hours of Operation:
June, July and August: Tuesday to Friday: 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m./ Saturday and Sunday: 12 – 5 p.m.

UPDATE 2022: this painting is now being offered by Adele Campbel Fine Art in Whistler, BC – more here.

July 5, 2018

Tag Archive for: Canadian Artists