
July 15, 2019 · 0 Comments
By Constance Scrafield
“How I met Joan, my dear friend, Valerie MacDonald had a studio in Dragonfly at the back, and she hooked me up with Joan [Hope, owner of Dragonfly] and I arranged to have a show in the window. But my friend passed away, the window became a mix of my friend’s and my paintings and Joan has kept me on ever since then. She sells them really well there and she has alway been very supportive.”
So was the beginning of the history between wildlife artist Kelly McNeil and Dragonfly.
Ms. McNeil went on to relate, “She sent me to B.C., to have a workshop with Robert Bateman at Cortes Island – really Cortes Island – we had a get-together.
“When I met him, he said that I would get a lot from one of his workshops. So, she sent me because I didn’t have enough money. ‘It was too good of an opportunity to pass up,’ is what she said.
“It was amazing! What a workshop. Since then, two girlfriends went to him and some of my students and others. They just loved it there.”
We were doing this interview late in the evening when Ms. McNeil was driving home from teaching in Mississauga. So, we talked about teaching art.
“I’ve got some really good students. Some are now my peers and have their own studios and do some of the same shows.”
In her personal life, with two adult daughters and a son, “My daughter is a creative director – she does commercials at CTV – for nine years now. Her group finally go their own office today,” she informed us, laughing.
“My other daughter is a horticulturalist.”
“Joan sells really well for me. She’s got a lot of my work up. I try to do smaller ones for her because they sell better…”
All the paintings on display and for sale of Kelly McNeil’s are of animals, domestic and wild. Many – the “smaller ones,” are of birds – on the wing, on the water, nestled on a nest. Her latest entry to Dragonfly is a hummingbird.
“It was at a show in London [Ontario].That’s where my daughters live ; they both went to Fanshawe and got jobs when they got out of school.”
Somewhat ambivalent about it, she told us, “my son is drumming. He’s starting at Humber College, taking media. He wants to do creative editing.”
Understanding that Ms. McNeil has simply been drawing and painting all her life with no idea of doing anything else, “I always drew and painted. I’m an only girl with two brothers. I went to high school and did art – there was a really wonderful art teacher at high school; she was a nun. It was all fine arts that we took – she taught everything from drawing to painting to sculpting Then, I attended OCAD, to study editorial illustration.”
She explained, “I did novel covers but I went back in 2012, when it was OCAD University and got a Bachelor of Design degree. I enjoyed it in the ’80’s. I went back to school and enjoyed that.”
All that, yet she refers to her “start” like this: “I got a studio at Beaux Art, bought a digital camera and went to the zoo. I got to jungle cat world and do behind the scenes and get to hold the animals. We played with the wolves.
“And I went back to my studio and started painting wildlife. Wherever I can, if I’m near a wild reserve, I drag my kids around to see the animals.
“When I was in college, the wildlife department was not considered real art; I was doing portraits and landscapes.
No longer: “When I go to the zoo, I take 1000 pictures, different angles, different lighting – maybe 25 of them work out to be paintings. Once when I was at the Humber College Lakeshore Campus that’s right on Lake Ontario, I saw a bird nesting; it was a redneck grieve. I did a painting of it.
“Once I started doing the wildlife, that’s when I started enjoying myself. It changes how you see. I had a cottage in Bracebridge and I saw nothing – now I can walk into a field and see a hawk.
Last November, “I went to Moscow, with my brother and my daughter. It’s a show called the Golden Turtle about biodiversity. All the countries were trying create awareness of the environment. They got together to protect the habitat of the snow leopards. They all agreed, including Russia, to protect the habitats of the snow leopard.
“Also try to raise money for lifesaving for children. It is creating a photography exhibition and competition.
“It was really nice and a great experience for my brother and my daughter. The statues were 16 storeys high; the music was crazy; there were such big buildings; everything is big. This was November 2018. I got third place for my picture, a Wood duck; I call it Blue Velvet. My brother is still friends with the people where curating it.”
As an artist, “I’ve learned that the world is precious. It’s like you can’t help but care about everything; we’re lucky in this day and age and where we can fly and we’re so connected. Science fiction predicted it was going to be like this.”
She continued, “I go to Charleston [to a show that includes her work] and meet these people from all over the world; at another show, the artists in my gallery in Wyoming, I meet the same people. It’s neat meeting them over and over. A friend was asked to go to Africa to work in a safari park. He was invited to bring some of his artists friends. I could stretch the money. “
Ms. McNeil teaches in a garage that has been renovated for the use as a studio and teaching space attached to the small house.
She said it has a loft and a garage “and I teach there and I do my painting there. It’s mostly a workspace. At the Visual Arts Mississauga, there’s a building with five classrooms for teaching art in night classes. In Etobicoke, at the Franklin Carmichael Centre, I teach art there too.
“I started with doing with certain curriculums. Most people want to do oil painting – most people want to paint and take it home. … But they keep coming back to me so they must be enjoying the classes.”
She commented, “I just paint in oil but I teach in acrylic and oil.”
Many of Ms. McNeil’s paintings are about animals in the water, looking fairly happy about it, over all. Her interpretation of water is truly wonderful.
“My favourite thing to paint is water. I took a workshop with Derek C.Wicks – a talented wildlife artist – he really gave it to his students. I wouldn’t have know how to get into duck unlimited and so much more.
“I was having a problem with water and he showed us what to do and I went home and I did it – it was just how to look at the water as an abstract form rather that as something wet to paint.
“All my students are doing something they wanted to do. And it’s great when kids come in and their parents encourage them . It’s so great to see a young kid with a lot of talent and they might have problems and, yet, if you can create an mazing piece of art, that will boost your self-confidence.”