Artist's Biography: History

My first drawing, as far back as I can remember, was done at the age of seven. I had locked myself out on the balcony and started to draw in pencil. I had no idea of what I wanted to draw at that moment, except a great need to draw. Since then, drawing became a way of expressing how I see life, nature, truths and peoples. I remember the first drawing in water color; I had painted in school, caused me tears of frustration because I couldn’t get the fine details I had in mind. Since then, it became my goal to be a realist fine artist. My challenge was to produce oil paintings in the realism style. Since then, I have held it as my life’s passion and career. I used to spend my allowance to buy art supplies (even though what I wanted was chocolates). In comparison however, painting was my ultimate joy and more valuable to me than any amount of chocolate could have been. Persistent in my artwork, I was surprised by a whole set of oil colors including brushes and canvases that was given to me as a gift from my lovely Mother. I was so overjoyed that I started my first oil painting, at age of twelve, of a country scene from my imagination. My family fell in love with the final result and so my dear Mother took it to get framed. Unexpectedly, my Mother came home, without my painting, and happily announced that she sold it to the owner who offered her a good price. My Mother was happy for me but I had mixed feelings. While I was happy that someone loved my painting enough to buy it, I missed my painting very much and as a result, I didn’t want to sell anymore of my paintings for a long time. However, I started to give some away as gifts to those dear to me. I received several certificates and awards for fine artwork produced in schools. My goal was to go to the University of Fine Arts which I eventually did. I didn’t go into visual art section but rather, I majored in interior and exterior design. I knew that selling paintings would not be the right path for me at that time because of how attached I became to my artwork. I led a successful career in interior and exterior design for several years and later got involved in architectural drafting and perspective presentations.

In 1982, I had worked for a Canadian company as a Graphic Artist in Toronto. I was thrilled when I was chosen to produce an oil painting of the "Canadian Constitution Act" and this was presented to the Prime Minister at that time, Mr. Pierre E. Trudeau. The painting is now hanging in his home in Montreal. My name appeared in the Toronto Star newspaper as a result of this task. In 1999, I had the privilege of receiving a letter of thanks and appreciation from Mr. Trudeau.

Broadening my art avenues, I took courses in "Commercial Arts", "Desktop Publishing" and "Digital Media". I have worked as a layout artist and a graphic designer. I also varied my work experience by getting a diploma in business administration and worked for Canada Post Cooperation, Head office in Ottawa. During this period, I was still painting in my free time and making additions to the artwork on my walls. I had to sell some of my paintings at times, and some oil paintings were done on commission. I also sold two oil paintings out of three in a big Art exhibition contained artworks of 35 Artists in the O'Keefe center, Toronto to raise funds for the Canadian Opera Company. Since then, I have been participating in International Art Exhibitions, Nationaly and localy. Some of my oil paintings and reproductions were sold in Canada, United States, Australia and in Africa (Egypt)

I would welcome your comments and further enquiries at: 1-613-767-9739 or by e-mail at: Fine artist - Realism, oil paintings