Welcome to Patricia Haftar Studios’ new website! Created by Ex Nihilo Website Designs. I hope this interactive website will be useful to clients and artists alike. Clients will be able to make purchases from the website and artists will be able to gather information on new, upcoming shows.

2016 started with a breath of fresh air wafting its way magically through the studio. Inspiration and passion struck at the same time. Those of you who follow my work know, I am totally enamoured with the power and great beauty of the Canadian Shield. This love affair began as a little girl by the knee of my Grandma Coleman (who was herself an amazing self- taught artist) at the family cottage in Muskoka. She loved the massive granite rocks and huge pine trees and her passion for the near north rubbed off on me.

It was then reignited 2 years ago on a weeklong trip to the French River area with a group of artist friends. Returning home I painted none stop for months. Scene after scene from French River to the islands of Georgian Bay, in total 16 paintings. I actually had to make myself stop and change subject so I’d have a bit of variety in the art shows I was participating in that year. But, every year since, from the wealth of photographs and plein air sketches I have been producing new work from The Shield. I have just recently started a winter series from the area, the first is titled “Haliburton”. I feel like I can relate to the character Sheldon from Big Bang Theory when he got an “ear worm” of the Tune “Darlin” from the Beach Boys and just can’t get it out of his head. I just can’t get the Canadian Shield out of my heart or my head and it just seems to drip off the end of my brush and splash all over the canvas.

I have also been working diligently with my friend and mentor James Kerr on a new art show for our community. We have decided to call it the “Welland Art Festival”. The idea for the show was born out of a show called Art on King which Jim and I managed last summer, during the opening of the Pan Am Games. This year, we decided to try and find a more permanent venue and have leased space in the Seaway Mall. This offers us an indoor area, lots of parking , washrooms and food on site. We have been concerned that over the past five years many fine art shows have closed and there are less and less opportunities for artists to display and sell their work. If you are a fine artist reading this blog post and wish an application form please email me at patriciahaftar@gmail.com. This is a juried show.