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From dinner table to art exhibitions: The story of SOVA’s founding artists

February 26, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Fourteen professional artists form the group Southern Ontario Visual Artists (SOVA).

One evening in June 2014, while having dinner at the Mandarin Chinese Restaurant in Brampton, the group, first and foremost, friends for many years, decided to form and work together, and they gave it a name.

“Each of us paints from the heart,” said Lynden Cowan, in an interview with the Citizen last week from the studio she shares with fellow artist Robert Chisholm in the Alton Mill Arts Centre. With her were Margaret Pardy and Michelle Eissler.

All but one member lives in Southern Ontario. It is their friendship with each other, they insisted, that is the true anchor that binds them.

Charlene Nickels

A founding member of SOVA, Charlene Nickels is living in PEI after 42 years in Orangeville. Fortunate to receive instruction from one of Canada’s most prestigious water colourists, Jack Reid, Nickels found water colour to be a joy, and it has become her passion.

Cowan discussed their participation in a number of shows across a reasonably broad area. She explained that they do not attend shows as a group but in smaller numbers. SOVA has staged exhibitions featuring varying numbers of its membership, including at Headwaters Arts Gallery. They’ve also shown their work at the Shelburne Town Hall Art Gallery.

Margaret Pardy

Margaret Pardy is an international artist and graduate of the Sheridan College Art Fundamentals Program; taken courses through the Ontario College of Art and workshops with professional artists such as Robert Bateman.

Pardy begins with the best of her original photographs of nature to get to a final picture for reference or photographs. Many times, she’s using multiple images for reference to create the final composition.

Lynden Cowan

Lynden Cowan, a self-taught artist, is drawn to the Canadian landscape and is noted for her ability to make viewers feel they are part of the scene.

What works well is that they back each other up. If one cannot manage to deliver their pieces to a show, another will help out. Frequently, the shows are curated.

Michelle Eissler

Michelle Eissler is a surrealist oil painter living in Alliston, Ont. She shares a studio at the Alton Mill. Eissler received an Art & Art History degree from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Interpretive Illustration program. She has exhibited her work at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Mississauga Civic Centre Art Gallery, Peel Art Gallery, Quest Gallery, and at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, among others.

Angela Burdon

Angela Burdon’s fascination with the freedom of the spirit is seen in the flowing manes of her wild horses. Moving on from being a Palliative Care Nurse, Angela combines the techniques in her painting that she learned from ateliers in Florence, Barcelona and Seattle.

Robert Chisholm

Robert Chisholm is an award-winning artist working mainly in acrylics and oils. Born in Nova Scotia, he lives in Orangeville, but his East Coast influence emerges in his landscapes and portraits.

Helen Duplassie

Award-winning, multi-media artist Helen Duplassie loves the soft and delicate intermingling of watercolours. She is primarily a landscape artist, yet she also enjoys painting flowers, people and still life.

Lynne Schumacher

Born in Toronto, Lynne Schumacher studied commercial art at Central Technical School under Doris McCarthy before turning her attention to landscape painting. Many hundreds of hours were spent in the Northern Ontario forests researching, sketching, photographing and painting her subjects.

Steve Wilson

Steve Wilson is an artist, teacher, juror and owner of Steve Wilson Studios and The Gallery in Niagara Falls, Ont. He is an elected and signature member of both the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Ontario Society of Artists.

Showing across Canada, the United States, England, Tasmania, and Turkey, his work was featured in shows like the Toronto Art Expo, Red Dot Miami, Paralux, Spectrum New York, VIBE Canada in England, and TAS ART Tasmania.

Janice Ykema

Janice Ykema grew up in a farming community in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She is a member of the Ontario Society of Artists, Colour and Form Society, and SOVA. Ykema was honoured by the Royal Winter Fair to be selected for the 2015 poster.

Joanne Lomas

Joanne Lomas is an emerging artist. She has completed a four-year BFA degree at Georgian College and Thompson Rivers University and is beginning a new adventure making art.

Daureen Murphy

Daureen Murphy likes to use colour, perspective and even poetry to express a story on canvas. Each of her wonderful paintings expresses a moment in time, a journey led by the brush, disclosed in the canvas

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Joanna Turlej

In her 35-year career as an artist, Joanna Turlej explored different media until, in 2014, she came to embrace paper collage. Her very specialized and unique technique has rendered her a lot of success. Turlej is an elected member and president of the Colour and Form Society (CFS).

In 2020, Turlej’s work was accepted to the Government of Ontario Art Collection.

Connie Munson

Connie Munson is an active member of several arts organizations. Showing her work in area galleries, her pieces have been hung in the a la carte Gallery of the O.L.A. at Queens Park, with honourable mentions at Joshua Creek Heritage Arts Centre and Beaux Arts Gallery. A piece winning third place hung in the Members Only show at the McMichael Gallery.

When asked how others might bring such a collaborative together, they were clear.

“Just start talking to your friends,” the three SOVA members said.

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