ART MAD ARTISTS
John Madden and partner Maggie opened Art Mad art store on Stittsville Main Street in July 2007 and were immediately beseiged by local parents seeking summer camp art classes, followed by Saturday classes in the school year. Adult classes took off too, in Watercolour (which John originally taught), Acrylics, Pastel, Calligraphy, Watercolour pencil, Drawing and more, so when the store closed in 2012,a group of the artists who painted there determined to carry on if we could find a studio. The meeting room at Stittsville Public Library was available on Friday afternoons, and we have been meeting at the library to paint together in our chosen media ever since.
Group members December 2012: June
Reed, Gerry Chamberlain, Ruby Hulshof, Lee Noseworthy, Bernice
Hennessy, Suzanne Marsden, Natalie Jones, Maggie Madden (Hilary Dick
absent from photo)
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| Group members at work in the library 2012. Photo montage by Suzanne Marsden |
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Core Group members + Patti Morgan 2nd left, Kala Ritchie 4th left. 2015 |
Past Members
Audrey Braganza Acrylics
Judith Carruthers Acrylics
Heather Cloutier Watercolour
Hilary Dick Watercolour Pencil, Acrylics
Bernice Hennessy Acrylics, Watercolour Pencil
Roelfina (Ruby) Hulshof Acrylics, Watercolour
Edna Marlow Watercolour
Suzanne Marsden Acrylics
Lily May Watercolour
Bereniece McMullen Acrylics
Myron Mech Watercolour and Pastel
Lee Noseworthy Acrylics
June Reed Watercolour
Kala Ritchie Acrylics, Mixed Media
Maryanne Sullivan Acrylics
Art Shows and Other Activities (See Year Posts on the Home Page for details)
Outdoor Shows
Stittsville Art(s) in the Park
From 2013 to 2019: The group had a booth showcasing our work in this event every year (with the exception of 2017) until the Covid pandemic of 2021/2022
Richmond Village Art Club Show: 2016, 2017
Indoor Shows
Annual Cock Show at Atomic Rooster Bar and Bistro, Bank Street: Similarly, every Sep/Oct from 2013 to 2018, there were always two or three Art Mad members who entered a Rooster painting for this show. After a gap of a few years, participation resumed in 2023.
Spencerville Art Scene: April 2016
Kanata Carleton Cultural Festival: Canada 150th Celebration: 2017
Library Shows
Stittsville Public Library: The Library has generously allotted us their Art Space Wall for a month, initially every two years ( 2014, 2016, 2018) and then once or twice every year (January and May 2019, March and August 2020, March 2021 (cut short by Covid pandemic), October 2022, March 2023
Munster Public Library: June and December 2023
The 2021/2022 pandemic and its consequence
All Libraries closed in March 2021 with the onset of the pandemic, group gatherings indoors were restricted and we were thus without a meeting place. We kept in touch and carried on painting but missed the group contact. From this grew the idea of meeting outdoors, which proved so successful and enjoyable that Plein Airs are now a regular feature.
2021: Stittsville, Poole Creek Bridge and Paul Lindsay Park (October)and Stittsville Village Square (November)
2022: Watson’s Mill, Manotick (July) and Pinhey’s Point (August)
2023: Spencerville Mill and river (July) and Merrickville Round House and river( August)
Local Media Coverage
Too many reports and articles to list, but highlights include:
Stittsville News (closed down in 2017), replaced in 2021 by Your Kanata-Stittsville Community Voice (paper and online)
The late John Curry, reporter and Stittsville News owner, was an ardent patron of the arts, and regularly covered our indoor and outdoor shows in these papers until his death in February 2022. Particularly full reports on the genesis of our group appeared in 2013 and 2016.
Another full report by Blair Edwards appeared on 9 March 2023 in Your Community Voice
StittsvilleCentral.ca
Great coverage by Carissa Fortin , 21 March 2020
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