Willowdale Group of Artists

Paint Night on Zoom
2025-11-04 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Toronto) | Zoom meeting
Interact with other WGA members while you paint. You will be provided with one or two scenes to paint at home in any medium you choose while sharing encouragement and experiences with others on Zoom.

Still Life Painting Reveal
2025-11-11 19:00 - 21:00 | John McKenzie House, 34 Parkview Ave., North York
Bring in your still life paintings based on the photos taken at the open house, and/or any other still life paintings you have completed recently to share with the group. Please arrive at 6:30 to set up and get organized.

Painting Fabulous Greeting Cards-Zoom Demo and Paint-a-Long
2025-11-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom meeting
Artist Sheryl Shapiro will present three different techniques for making unique painted greeting cards and we will paint along at home. Sheryl will provide us with a suggested list of materials before this date so members can gather whatever tools they have or want to buy.

Life Drawing
2025-11-25 18:00 - 20:30 | North York Seniors Centre, 21 Hendon Ave, Toronto, Ontario, M2M 4G8, Canada
Life drawing with a model. In person. Set-up at 6pm with live model beginning at 6:30.

Demo Oil painting with a palette knife- zoom
2025-12-02 19:00 - 21:00
Pastel and oil painter, Maria Iva, will demonstrate painting in oil with a palette knife. Join us online on Zoom after 6:30 and the demo will begin at 7:00.

Holiday Party
2025-12-09 19:00 - 21:00 | John McKenzie House, 34 Parkview Ave., North York
Celebrate the holiday season with WGA. Please bring your holiday spirit and a refreshment to share for the buffet table.

Zoom - Life Drawing
2026-01-13 19:00 - 20:30
Details to follow

Beauty in Motion: Edgar Degas' Ballet Dancers - A Zoom Presentation by Art Historian Anik Waldeck
2026-01-20 19:00
Beauty in Motion: Edgar Degas’s Ballet Dancers

Let’s go backstage with one of the most celebrated artists of the 19th century!

Edgar Degas’s beautiful ballet dancers have captured the hearts of art enthusiasts the world over and become synonymous with the Impressionist movement. One might expect Degas’s seemingly countless images of this theme to focus primarily on the lovely tutus and graceful arabesques of pretty ballerinas as they flit across the stage. Closer observation, however, reveals that his primary interest lay elsewhere. Instead of repeatedly depicting the glitz and glamour of a full-dress performance, the artist became fascinated with what happened behind the scenes.

Art Historian Anik Waldeck will pull back the curtain to reveal the world of ballet in 19th-century France, the manner in which Degas depicted its complexities and how he produced these beloved works of art.

Paintout on Zoom
2026-01-27 19:00 - 21:00
Fear not! No need to venture out into the harsh winter weather to paint with other WGA members. Join other members on Zoom to paint together. This week we are painting some beautiful scenery from Scotland. The photos were emailed to members at the end of last week. Choose one of these to paint while chatting and exchanging encouragement and advice with other members. If you prefer to work on something else you are welcome to do that too. Use the regular zoom link which you can find on the WGA website after logging in to members.

Paint Light and Shadow in a Winter Watercolour -Zoom
2026-02-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
Join Haliburton Highlands artist Gord Jones as he demonstrates how he translates light and shadow from a photo to his watercolour paintings. Gord will paint a ¼ sheet painting working from his photo by first creating a quick sketch and then completing the painting within approximately one hour. He will also talk about his process before he begins and answer questions after the demo.

Painting Loose: Roses in Pastel
2026-02-10 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Watch acclaimed oil and pastel artist Daniel Keys paint roses from start to finish in pastel, including a pastel alcohol wash underpainting.

PORTRAIT NIGHT
2026-02-17 07:00 | Zoom
Draw a portrait of a subject caught in an instant of motion. We will randomly choose an image from a video of a person speaking or in some motion and draw them from a more dynamic pose. Join us any time after 6:30pm to chat, and at 7pm we will begin Portrait Drawing via zoom.

Promoting & Selling Your Artwork Online - Zoom Presentation
2026-02-24 19:00 - 21:00
Artist Jordana Heney will talk about using Instagram and Facebook, and to a lesser extent, TikTok, to promote your art online. The objective of promoting yourself as an artist online is to enhance your personal brand. By enhancing your personal brand artists can expand their customer base and so enable them to reach more people and make more sales in the long run. That said, those sales don’t necessarily need to be made online. An artist that doesn’t sell their work online could still use social media to promote themselves in order to build their customer base

Painting Fast Moving Water - Zoom Demo
2026-03-03 19:00 - 21:00
Join artist Janine Marson as she demonstrates how to paint the fast moving water of the spring runoff on the Oxtongue River. The demo will cover fast moving water, water spray and foam, and craggy rocks. Learn how to express the movement of water by how you move your brushes with a gestural flourish as you unload the paint on the canvas.

"Fast and Furious" Paint Night on Zoom
2026-03-10 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom meeting
And now for something completely different! You will have a maximum of 30 minutes to paint a small painting or sketch. See how fresh and painterly your creations look when you move quickly to get the essence of a painting. You will create at least three paintings in one night with time to share your results at the end of the evening. You will receive some resource photos by email prior to paint night or better yet, choose your own. But make sure you have the photos and small supports ready to go before we start because you only have 30 minutes to paint.

Join other members on Zoom and let’s paint together. Use the regular zoom link which you can find on the WGA website after logging in to members.

Painting with Guoache
2026-03-17 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
Artist Andrew Judd will be painting with gouache on a canvas panel with a fairly limited palette. He will share the benefits of painting with this medium that give it several advantages over acrylic, watercolour, and oil as well as the brushes and tools he uses. He will also cover the different qualities of gouache, depending on the manufacturer.

Portrait Night on Zoom
2026-03-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom meeting

Life Drawing - North York Seniors Centre
2026-03-31 18:00 - 21:00
GREAT NEWS! We are back with in-person life drawing at the North York Seniors’ Centre. There will be a live model and a variety of poses and times. Same location but in a different room on the same floor as previously. As there is no kitchen there, please bring a drink and snack for fortification during the evening. Set-up at 6pm with live model beginning at 6:30.

Painting metal - Zoom Demo video by Artist Daniel Keys -
2026-04-07 19:00 - 21:00
Watch artist Daniel Keys paint a still life with antique silver creamer in oil. The demo will start on Zoom using our regular zoom link. An email will be sent out to members that will include a photo of the still life he is painting. Print it out and follow along as Daniel paints.

Nailing painting still lifes - In Person
2026-04-14 19:00 - 21:00 | North York Seniors Centre, 21 Hendon Ave, Toronto, Ontario, M2M 4G8, Canada
Bring your paints, crayons, coloured pencils, charcoal or whatever medium you’d like to use. You will be given various photos to paint and a time limit within which you will “nail it!”. Bring several surfaces on which to work as we will work on more than one painting over the evening, Arrive by 6:30 to set up your materials. Bring an easel if you need one and a snack if you’d like one. We will not have access to the kitchen there

Painting the figure in the Landscape - In-Person
2026-04-21 19:00 - 21:00 | John McKenzie House, 34 Parkview Ave, Willowdale, ON, Canada
Award winning artist Sloan Oliver-Mitchell will do an in-person demo of a study of the figure in the landscape. She will use oil paint. Her demo will cover creating depth, atmosphere, natural colour mixing and creating a cohesion between the figure and the landscape.

Life Drawing - North York Seniors Centre
2026-04-28 18:00 - 21:00
There will be a live model and a variety of poses and times. North York Seniors’ Centre but in a different room on the same floor as previously. As there is no kitchen there, please bring a drink and snack for fortification during the evening. Set-up at 6pm with live model beginning at 6:30.

Critique Night with Artist Andrew Hamilton
2026-05-05 18:30 - 21:00 | John McKenzie House, 34 Parkview Ave., North York
Bring in two paintings you would like feedback on. As usual, Andrew will provide his insightful thoughts on your paintings. In order to have enough time to cover all your paintings, please arrive at between 6:00 pm and 6:30 to help with set up so we can begin the critique at 6:30.

AGM
2026-05-12 18:30 - 20:30 | John McKenzie House, 34 Parkview Ave, Willowdale, ON, Canada
This meeting will be at the John McKenzie House, 34 Parkview Ave., North York in person and on zoom, Members who cannot attend may arrange for another WGA member to cast their vote.

The in-person meeting is a pot luck.

Please arrive around 6pm to assist in set-up and to chat. We will start the meeting at 6:30 pm.

In person demo - Figure in the Landscape
2026-05-26 19:00 - 21:00 | North York Seniors Centre, 21 Hendon Ave, Toronto, Ontario, M2M 4G8, Canada
Artist Sloan Oliver-Mitchell will demonstrate painting the figure in the landscape in oil. Her demo will cover creating depth, atmosphere, cohesion between the figure and the landscape and natural colour mixing.

Please arrive at 6:30 for set-up and the demo will begin at 7 pm. There is street parking after 6 pm and $2 parking at the TTC parking lot across the street.
