Arctic Quest

In 2006, twenty-five artists marked the 100th anniversary of Amundsen’s 1906 navigation through the Northwest passage with a journey of their own.

Painting shown is part of the Vancouver Maritime Museum's permanent collection.

RoseMarie Condon WNAG

Artist's statement

CCGS Henry Larsen’s bridge a fine vantage point; I sketched the majesty of the High Arctic July 24 till late August 1994. Breaking ice in Lancaster Sound escorting ore carriers and provisioning ships to Nanasivik and Little Cornwallis Island our ice breaker continuously rode up on heavy first and multi-year pack ice to open a channel.

Cruising Lancaster Sound aboard the Akademik Ioffe in late July 2006 there was no ice to be found. Enormous glaciers I trekked on in 1994 near Dundas Harbour were alarmingly diminished.

Searching for pack ice we headed for Greenland looking to encounter animals that forage and give birth on the ice pack. The sun shone the sea mill pond still, many of us wore shorts and t-shirts it was surreal.

Painting:
Midsummer's Arctic Night
12" x 16"
Oil on Canvas

Biography

RoseMarie is a professional fine artist, illustrator and graphic designer. Her paintings in watercolour, oil or acrylic are appreciated for their strong compositions, knowledgeable use of colour, light and affinity with her chosen subject. A painter who expresses her Canadian heritage and concern for Canada’s unique and fragile ecology through her paintings of landscape, flora and fauna RoseMarie is a tireless wilderness traveler.

Born and educated in Toronto RoseMarie studied the many disciplines necessary in the creation of fine and graphic art at Danforth Technical School. Under the tutelage of Archibald ‘Dan’ Logan she learned painting, composition, perspective; with Fred Savard illustration, life studies, layout, rendering; with Vince McGill design, lettering, colour theory and with William Clements she studied the history of art, anatomy and sculpting.

Exhibitions: Shown paintings by invitation in well over 150 Juried Exhibitions and Fine Art Galleries throughout Ontario.

Collections: Paintings in private and corporate collections in Canada and abroad; numerous private commissions as well as the collections of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Coast Guard.

Awards: Received awards for graphic art, design and children’s illustrations created for numerous multi-national corporations.

Arts Organizations
• The Arts & Letters Club of Toronto, active member
• SCBWI, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
• WNAG, Worldwide Nature Artists Group www.natureartists.com/rosemarie_condon.asp

Represented by
• John A. Libby Fine Art, Toronto, Ontario
• Nature’s Scene, Georgetown, Ontario
• Gallery at the Club at Bond Head, Ontario
• LKT Creative Ltd., Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Teaching and Presentations: Conducted watercolour, oil painting and life drawing classes as well as talks and slide presentations of her Arctic and many other wilderness excursions for numerous arts groups and patrons.

Current Events: RoseMarie Condon and Paul Gauthier are the 2006 ‘Artists of Distinction’ for the 29th Annual La Cloche Arts Show. Condon and Gauthier will jury artist’s works submitted to the show, demonstrate their own painting methods in oil and watercolour and display their oil paintings of the La Cloche landscape, made famous by Franklin Carmichael, A.J. Casson and Joachim Gauthier.

Web: www.geocities.com/laclocheartshow