I started painting late. In my home country, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), I studied medicine. Before finishing, I had a baby and, due to hostile political climate in the country, I and my family emigrated to Canada. Medicine was out of the question now: No money, small child and I didn't know English. I trained as a laboratory technologist and worked in the hospital. I soon realized, I had a different calling. I signed up to art school (Dundas Valley School of Art). Now I was in my element. I rented a studio and painted. This was in the eighties. I still had a fly in my bonnet though. I was not happy with my English. I signed up to MacMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and got my BA in ComparativeLiterature and than MA in French. I took it all the way to the Ph. D. (Rice University, Houston, Texas.) and after that, time of  fury of painting began once more. When we moved to our farm in Georgian Bluffs, Ontario, Canada, I was, and thus far am, unstopable. I have a fine studio where I spend hours, daily.

My paintings are in oils on canvas and in watercolors on paper. Sizes vary from few square inches to several square feet. The paintings sing with color, have explosive energy, and yet contain subtle lyricism. Often they are representational—still-lives, portraits, nature paintings—sometimes they are abstractions. Although I have lived on the North-American continent for nearly forty years,the European sensibility is part of my and my art's make-up. My work is embedded in my family tradition. My Austrian maternal grandfather, Albert Paris von Gutersloh,  an influential figure in the Fantastic School of Vienna, and my mother, Alexandra Budlovsky, more modestly, but with great personal style, depth and flair gave the groundwork to my own artistry. I am deeply indebted to them. Furthermore, in Canada, my friendship with one of the utmost Canadian painters, Lorne Wagman, has had pivotal influence on the direction my art has taken.

 

Recent Exhibitions

Group:

2018: First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto, On.,

Curated by David Kaye

2018: Flesherton Art Gallery, Flesherton, ON., with Ian Price

2016: Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound, ON., Extraordinary Tree. With Lorne Wagman

2014: Flesherton Art Gallery, Flesherton, ON., Canada. With Lorne Wagman

2013: Art and History Museum, Orillia, ON., Canada

2013: Flesherton Art Gallery, Flesherton. ON, Canada, with Jean Francis.

2013: Legacy gallery, Owen Sound, ON., Canada. 

2013: Meaford Hall, Meaford ON. Second Prize in Juried Show.

2012: Southampton Art Gallery, with Artists around the Sound.

2012: Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound ON, with Artists around the Sound.

2012: Carnegie Gallery, Dundas ON, two artists, with Jean Francis.

2011: Engine Gallery, Toronto, ON.

2011: The Chicago House, Owen Sound, Ontario.

2011: Convergence, Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound ON.

2011: Flesherton Art Gallery, Flesherton , ON.

2010: Flesherton Art Gallery, Flesherton, ON.

2009: Landscapes, Mindscapes, Abstraction of Potential, Gallery DeBoer, Owen Sound, ON.

2009: Convergence, Tom Thomson Gallery, Owen Sound, ON.

2009: Whimsical Women, Pearl Company, Hamilton, ON.

2009: The Mud Town, Owen Sound, ON.

2008: Cobble Beach Golf Club, Owen Sound, ON.

2006-2013: Artists around the Sound Studio Tour, Georgian Bluffs, ON.

2006-2010: Art in the Garden, Keppel Croft Gardens, Big Bay, ON.

2006: Feast for the Eyes, Southampton Gallery, Southampton, ON, Visionary Award.

1991: Eccentric Furniture Show, Hamilton, ON & Traveling .

1990: Flower Show, Hamilton, ON & Traveling.

Solo:

2018: David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, Ontario

2015: David Kaye Gallery, Toronto, ON

2014: Santa Fe Gallery, Owen Sound, ON.

2014: Mind and Body Clinic, Toronto, ON.

2013: Malcolm Gear Studio, Welland, ON.

2011: Thornbury Memorial Library, Thornbury, ON.

2009: The Market Side, Owen Sound, ON.

1993: Exuberance, Gallery, McMaster Medical Center, Hamilton, ON.

1992: Hamilton Artist Inc., Hamilton, Ontario.

1990: Gallery Manor, Toronto, Ontario.

1989: Ha’Ku Gallery, St. Catharines, Ontario. 

Art Awards:

2013: Ontario Arts Council Assistance Grant for Exhibiting Artists

2013: Second Prize in the juried show at Meaford Hall, Meaford ON., Canada

2006: Visionary Award, Southampton Art Gallery, Southampton, ON

1985-1993: Four Ontario Arts Council Assistance Grants for Exhibiting Artist. Canada

 

 

Education

1987-2000 Higher Education

2000: Ph.D. Rice University, Houston, Texas. French Studies. Specialty: Eighteenth-Century Art from Structuralist Feminist perspective. Focus: Paintings of Jean-Baptiste Greuze

1996-1997: Université de Haute Bretagne, Rennes, France

1994: M.A. McMaster University, Hamilton, ON; French

1992: B.A. Comparative Literature, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON

1980-1982 Dundas Valley School of Art, Foundation Studies

1969-1971: School of Medical Technology, Hamilton, ON., Canada. Worked as a Medical Technologist at St. Joseph's Hospital, Hamilton, ON. and Oakville Trafalgar Hospital, Oakville, ON. until 1979