Accomplished artists featured at Bon Echo

Friends of Bon Echo | Aug 26, 2015

The Bon Echo art program will feature two outstanding artists as the final exhibitors in its 2015 season. The works of Lisa Johnson and Melissa Randle will be on display and offered for sale at the Colin Edwards Memorial Art Gallery in the park from August 27 to October 13. The featured artists are just one of many events organized each summer by the Friends of Bon Echo.

Lisa Johnson - Lisa graduated with honours from the Ontario College of Art and Design, where she won the prestigious Mrs. W.O. Forsythe Award for 4th year women painters in 1996. While Johnson was born in Toronto, her family’s roots are in the Mazinaw Lake area; her grandfather, Wallace Johnston managed the Sawyer Stoll Lumber mills from the 30s to the 50s and her family has had a cottage on the lake ever since.

Most of the work that Johnson plans to show at the Colin Edwards Gallery will be “en plein air” paintings - typically small oils on wood panels or canvas, done on location, either floating in her boat by Bon Echo, or hiking to different locations around the lake. Website: www.lisajohnsonart.ca.

Melissa Randle - Originally from Kingston, Melissa spent a lot of her childhood at Bon Echo. She has been living in this area for nine years. Her love of nature and the outdoors provides the inspiration for her work. She strives to share this love, not only through her photography, but also by using other artistic mediums (including glass, pastels and paint). Her cameras are her constant companions as there is always a butterfly to follow, a loon rising from the lake, or the sun casting a glow through the trees or on the water. For samples of her stunning, varied work, please visit her website: http://www.freewebs.com/randleartstudio/.