Artway Invitational - Past Exhibits

Michael Huggins was born in Toronto in 1962. He grew up with a love of 'all things creative'. At an early age he discovered his drawing and painting skills and showed early signs of artistic talent as he grew into early adulthood. Conflicted by the fear of "how will you make a living from this?", Michael spent this first seven years after school working as a transport driver. While his work "paid the bills" it created a creative void in his life. Through those years he augmented this void by constantly drawing and painting into the late hours after his work day was done.

After years of dissatisfaction in his job, Michael's wife Anita encouraged him to make the break and enter into the arts. He studied advertising and design at Humber College of Applied Arts and Design, while his wife worked to pay the bills. Michael graduated and started working as a graphic designer in a design agency. He developed his art and design skills and worked his way up in the advertising world from designer to creative director.

After successfully working in the applied arts world for a number of years Michael partnered with his wife to start their own design firm - Mindwalk Design Group. They built and ran their business together for over 18 years, designing thousands of marketing and design projects for many high profile corporate clients. Michael taught various design courses at the local colleges and universities while working in his design firm and in 2009 he published his first book on running a design business. During these years he spent building business, teaching and writing he continued his passion for fine art in his spare hours.

Always interested in the human form and the expression of the individual within paintings, his subject matter focuses heavily on people. Drawing inspiration from close friends, family and paid models he paints the human form with a desire to create something new and expressive with every painting he creates. Heavily influenced by his applied arts and design background, Michael’s unique approach to painting is to express creative versatility and tone by applying a multi-style, multi-technique approach to the subjects he paints. He works frequently in both Oil and Acrylic.

Michael and his wife sold their design firm in 2015 and Michael entered back into the corporate world where once again - he fuels his love for art by painting and drawing at every available moment after the work day is done.

During her career, Marie was a teacher where she loved working with her students doing crafts. Today, she is retired from teaching but is still an avid student of art studying many forms and media. Whatever catches her interest whether it be sculpting, printmaking or watercolors she likes to experiment as long as she can put her signature mark of whimsy on it. Today, Marie continues on her road of art development taking great delight in her world of whimsy art.

Amanda as been practicing amateur photography and art for the last 10 years. She has chosen flowers from her garden to express her inner self. More recently, she has experimented with pastels on construction paper using abstract composition. She continues to express herself in writing, dance and art.

I like to paint natural light and shadows, which creates visual impact. Birds, animals and children in the natural surroundings is something that adds life to my paintings. I am always in search of shapes and colors that gives feeling of joy.

While studying applied art, I learned Illustrations. I have worked as a Graphic Designer in India and Canada. Being a commercial artist did not stop me from doing Masters in Fine Arts where I actually started experimenting with variety of mediums like Water, Acrylics, Pastels and Clay.

This theme show "Reflections" is showcase of paintings done in watercolour and acrylics. This show is series of paintings of boats, marina and nearby area. I hope the viewer experiences joy of visualizing these beautiful outdoor spaces as they see my paintings. Working outdoor for these paintings gave me feeling of being one with nature and getting immediate feedback and appreciation from people. This feedback gave me positive vibes, which encouraged me to create better art.