ALEDA O'CONNOR

Aleda O’Connor is Hamilton resident who grew up in Toronto and graduated in Fine Art from the University of Guelph.

For many years, Aleda spent her summers on a farm at Bond Head north of Toronto Ontario. She was inspired by renowned Canadian artists Charles Comfort and Carl Schaefer, who were family friends and regular visitors to the farm. At Bond Head she acquired a permanent affection for Southern Ontario’s rural agricultural landscape and remains inspired by the geometry of open fields, drumlins and woodlots.

In recent years she has added urban landscapes, particularly the industrial city of Hamilton Ontario to her repertoire of subjects affected by the weather conditions that continuously transform familiar landscapes.

Her travels have taken her across Canada, to the United States, Mexico, Ireland, England, Iceland, France, Italy and Portugal and the Caribbean. While hunting for places that are shaped by weather, she discovered sheep, a subject she has returned to many times.

Every summer she spends several weeks on New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island contemplating the ocean, wind and mists of the Bay of Fundy.

Her work has been shown in galleries in Canada and South Korea and is represented in private collections in Canada, the United States and Ireland.   Her paintings are featured on sets for such television programs as Orphan Black, Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, Mary Kills People and Workin’ Moms.

"...I have been pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone, experimenting with unfamiliar media and techniques and giving myself permission to have as much fun as possible. My routine is varied but I like to get started early while everything is quiet.  Last summer, I studied at the Royal Drawing School in London. That experience introduced me to a lively online life-drawing community which now provides some scheduling structure to my days and gets me going before dawn to ‘join’ other artists from all over the world."