Donald Teuma-Castelletti
PONTIAC
June 9-10, 16-17, 2018
Artists from Quyon up through Campbell’s Bay opened their doors to the public these past two weekends, allowing guests from across the Pontiac and beyond an opportunity to browse their work, ask questions and, in many cases, see how their canvas goes from blank to bountiful.
With the chance to meet 12 artists working across a variety of mediums, guests to the 29th annual Pontiac Artists’ Studio Tour were privy to an in-depth look at some of the region’s creative talents.
This year’s stops saw a mix of new additions and veterans to the tour, with some returning after a brief hiatus. The trek starts with a couple of stops in Quyon, and allowed guests the chance to visit any locations on the two weekends, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Many artists were quick to highlight that their studios were often open to visitors year-round.
Shannon Purcell – Quyon
A self-taught painter, specializing in realistic portraits of animals, Shannon Purcell was proud to show off her work as guests were free to tour her home as they browsed the canvasses strung about the walls.
“I learn something with every painting,” she said. “Whether it’s a technique, a different kind of brush stroke, I learn as I go.”

Preferring to have a singular focus for each piece, Purcell was one of the returning artists to the tour. After taking a year off, this was her sixth time hosting guests on the tour, many of whom were drawn to the portraits of elephants and lions that hung on the main floor.
While the animals were a clear favourite, Purcell said she was interested in returning to depicting people within her art. Humans, she said, have instead become the focus of her art classes, when she’s teaching them a few times each week.
Cheryl Dolan –
Quyon
With a recent branching into having her art adorning pillows, Cheryl Dolan has continued to host guests on the tour in her home, where they’re met with brightly-coloured paintings of cows, as well as some new abstract works.
“People always like my cows, that’s what I do mostly,” said Dolan.
“She has her own dairy farm, without all the work,” laughed Martina Evans, a guest on the tour.
Dolan added that the pillows, featuring her paintings of birds, have been a real highlight for her, as she has always thought it’d be cool to have her work on them. As well, having recently played around with the pouring technique, guests were interested in her abstract pieces, decorating the walls near the entrance.
Valerie Bridgeman –
Thorne
Filling the tabletops in Valerie Bridgeman’s studio were a variety of works, but one of her most popular, and the hardest to keep stocked, have been the decorated notebooks. She was lucky to have five of these to show off, as they had tended to be long gone before any of the other times she’s participated in the tour.
“People come in and if they like my style, then they’ll like everything that’s here,” she said, of the more popular pieces.
Tending to her art with the changing of the seasons, Bridgeman enjoys blending pieces of nature right into the final product, whether it’s a painting, print or piece of pottery.
Jennifer Dale-Judd – Clarendon
Returning from a break of hosting guests on the tour – due to her winery/studio being constructed – Jennifer Dale-Judd had a suspicion that visitors were there to not only see her art, but to check out the new facilities. Nonetheless, she was proud to show off what they had built, providing visitors from outside the region a chance to see not only the art, but a hint of everything else the Pontiac can offer.
In regard to her paintings, her works have taken on a new focus as she dives deeper into the winery business. Many of the new pieces included in the gallery incorporated wine themes and colours, taking inspiration from the world around her.
“There’s a little bit more of the vineyard and grape colours in my artwork,” she continued. “It’s become more of my day-to-day.”
Nancy Dagenais Elliott – Clarendon
Filling up her studio walls with many familiar landscapes or scenery to the area, Nancy Dagenais Elliott recently made an effort to start painting subjects much closer. That’s why she was quick to highlight her paintings of flowers as a new, fun project, despite admiring them solely for their beauty.
“I don’t know much about flowers, but I’ve been playing with them,” she admitted, with a laugh.
Pointing towards her lilac paintings as a personal favourite, she shared that many of her visitors were still drawn to the landscape paintings that she had focused on in years past. Nonetheless, Dagenais Elliott said her new work is for her to enjoy and she looks forward to guests enjoying it every year.
“It’s a nice feeling, to be able to paint [for myself],” she said. “When people come in, I think it’s obvious that I do it for me.”
Rosemary (Hynes) Driscoll – Portage du Fort
One of two artists showing from the Stone School, Rosemary (Hynes) Driscoll’s fused glass, paintings and prints occupied the main floor, greeting guests as they entered. Traditionally, she had created functional fused glass pieces, like lamps bowls, but a new form she began experimenting with proved quite popular.
Blending her love for glass with a passion for painting, she had a variety of landscapes, depicted in shards of glass, on display. Whether smashed, dusted or cracked, the glass created a new texture for her work, simultaneously adding new dimensions.
“I’m pretty self-taught and I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I’ve learned from all of them,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll be making next year, but I hope it’s something different.”
Stéphane Hébert –
Portage du Fort
Upstairs at the Stone School were the abstract series of Stéphane Hébert, as they dominated the walls with their various themes, colours and moods. Describing his work as having a singular concept or emotion conveyed, he admitted that he’s aware it would be hard for any visitor to feel the same as he does while enjoying them but is persistent in telling the story anyways.
“When I start a something, there is a story being weaved into a series of paintings,” he explained. “Other times, there’s pure emotion.”
Having given up the arts for roughly 20 years, he first reignited his passion for painting just three years ago, and has become a part of galleries throughout the Ottawa and Gatineau areas with his various series in that time.
Jeanne McTiernan –
Grand Calumet Island
The next stop on the tour was an artist who had, admittingly, grown a bit disillusioned with it all, finding it hard to justify being a stop when she was seeing less guests. However, Jeanne McTiernan’s mood was lifted after the success of the past two weekends, when she saw numbers rivalling her first year joining the event.
“This year, I really questioned myself in my participation going forward,” she said. “But yesterday was a wonderful day, almost like my first year. As an artist, it reconfirmed the purpose behind it and it’s been a boost.”
Typically, her work had been done in series, whether it be repurposing old kitchen cabinets from a family member’s renovation or placing her stained glass within the confines of a snowshoe, creating a Canadiana depiction. This year, however, she continued to cultivate her own enjoyment from the work of her garden art, displayed not only within the studio, but bursting out onto the rest of her property.
“I think I’ve evolved in that now, I follow my heart more and concentrate on my passions more than before,” she explained.
Linda B. Godin –
Grand Calumet Island
The next stop on the list proved to be a skip and a hop, not only in distance, but in blood lines, too. That’s because Linda B. Godin is the sister of McTiernan, quite evident from their desire to sculpt depictions from anything but paint.
Over the past year, Godin was proud to have come into contact with her Indigenous roots and respect for the culture, something she has sought to pursue in her woodworking.
Admitting she had been slow to get into making new things in years past, following the end of the last tour, she escaped the lull to find this new niche, and has been whittling away diligently ever since. Boasting years of experimentation – and failure – into every successful piece, Godin’s foray into Indigenous culture also extended into the rest of her works. She no longer sculpts animals from far-off places, preferring to hone her skills to the creatures synonymous with Canada.
Dale Shutt –
Grand Calumet Island
Tucked far off into the island, and after a quick, winding drive up to the property, one of the first things to stand out will be a sign warning of a dragons crossing, quickly setting the tone for a studio that is well worth the adventure. As much as the drive is half the fun, guests will find themselves surrounded by the nesting of Dale Shutt and her studio, complete with her unique line of painted silks and much more.
While dresses hang from racks and paintings from walls, Shutt had one piece in particular to highlight. Blending rich tones of autumn sunset hues with black, it was the culmination of mashing all of her artistic tendencies together, as it had a woodblock print upon her hand painted silk, plus a three-dimensional aspect to the piece.
While a portion of the guests on the tour may miss out by their reluctance to travel a bit further up the dusty road, Shutt was confident in continuing to host her stop within her own studio.
“This is my studio, where people can see where I work,” she said. “It is occasionally disappointing to hear how many others visited the other stops, but there’s not much I can do except try to convince people it’s a lovely drive and well worth it.”
Clément Hoeck and Hyesuk Kim – Campbell’s Bay
The final stop on the tour was the home of Clément Hoeck and Hyesuk Kim, complete with all of their art and their young son, as he enjoyed the sunshine of the weekend in the backyard. Organized delicately about the property were the porcelain and stoneware pottery work of Hoeck, while Kim’s South Korean paper crafts and textile art occupied the space indoors.
“Before you see the end results, there’s lots of steps,” said Hoeck, as he gave a tour of his studio.
It’s a fitting description for both of their work (not to mention, the tour in general), especially when you consider not only how long it takes to create each piece, but the years they’ve taken to learn their crafts. While Hoeck showed his wares generously, a tour of his workspace would highlight the experimentation that goes into crafting every edge and pigment – a process that could never be learned overnight.
However, it was the one final boast of Kim’s work that highlighted the unique collaboration that their art provided within their home, especially in this part of Canada.
“No one’s doing this between here and Vancouver,” he said.