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After intense corporate life, art brings the rewards


On Sunday Oct. 25, 2015 the Hamilton Estonian Society had the pleasure of introducing water colour artist Eva Ivanov to our community. Eva, together with husband Wayne, moved to Hamilton 4 years ago after retiring from 30 years in the corporate world. She now focuses on painting in her home studio while also doing freelance work in the film industry around Hamilton.

Eva's creative side was already evident in childhood and manifested itself initially in the theatre as an adult, where she spent some 25 years primarily directing. She has always been active in sports, including dancing in Toronto's Estonian folk dance group Kungla in her early days.

Eva Ivanov

The first time she seriously picked up a paintbrush, states Eva, was in 2006. This is somewhat incredulous to me, as her paintings show a maturity and skill level which would indicate Eva's having honed her craft for many decades.


It all began with a Japanese brush painting course, which got Eva hooked. She has studied under, and been influenced by, many watercolour artists including Ken MacFarlane, David McEown, Donnah Cameron II, June Thompson, Barry Coombs, Brenda Turnour, Brigitte Schreyer and Stephen Yau. Eva described in her lecture how she was advised early on to use only the best brushes, paints and papers, advice to which she fervently adheres to.

It was fascinating to hear of Eva's artistic journey and of the trials and tribulations of selling artwork, including interesting anecdotes of various buyers and their diverse reasons for purchasing her works.
Eva brought dozens of her watercolours for the attendees to enjoy, from her earlier black and white brush paintings to her often very colourful more recent landscape scenes, where the influence of northern Ontario and water is evident. We hope to see much more of this talented Estonian artist in the future!

 

 

 

Merike Koger

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