Painting and drawing is what Gloria loves to do best. With over thirty years experience in portraiture one would have to say it is her subject’s eyes (windows of the soul) that capture the personality in her life-like portraits. Although Gloria would prefer to first sketch and photograph her subject for reference use, the majority of paintings have been done from family and school photos which have been sent to her through the recommendations of other satisfied customers. Her paintings are done in oils, pastels, pencil, coloured pencils and watercolours. Gloria also enjoys doing other subjects including pets, flowers, and landscapes.
Gloria studied art at such institutions as Durham College, Danforth Polytechnical Institute; she is a vocational arts graduate from Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute. She has been a member of Pickering Creative Arts, and is presently a member of Ajax Creative Arts. She has studied with such renowned artists as Joyce Roots, Doug Purdon, and Mr. Savard to name a few. She has also done many years of self study.
Employment at Sears and with the Toronto Institute of Medical Technology provided her with ten years experience in the commercial art industry from doing paste-up and retouching to illustration and art preparation for slide presentations. Here she would start with an idea and work through to the end product herself.
Gloria also works for the Pickering Public Library since 1990.
Her activities at the library include teaching drawing and cartooning classes to young children, conducting storytimes live with music and interaction with handmade puppets and visual aids. The attendees of the elementary school class-visits always look forward the related drawing–stories that Gloria prepares and presents preceding her book-talks and activities. Other activities include doing visual display flyers and signs and other library duties such as Circulation and Information desk. Gloria has volunteered years of work with children and adults in church music and storytimes at local elementary schools.
Gloria was born 1950 and raised in Highland Creek, a suburb of Toronto. From here she taught portraiture in 1977 for Nautilus Arts and Crafts. She now resides with her husband in Pickering Village where they lovingly raised an: Art Director/Web Designer, one Music Teacher / Performer/Composer, and one Computer Technologist. Pickering has been Gloria’s ancestral home going back to the 1800’s and she has resided there since 1973.
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