Eveline Janis

LIGHT & COLOUR

Éveline (Fournier) Janis grew up on a farm in a French-speaking community in Saskatchewan. The summer months were spent discovering the nesting places of the birds around the dam on the  family farm and enjoying the wild roses and lady slippers on the prairie hillsides. Not surprisingly, drawing and painting were Éveline's favourite pastimes. The prairie sage, the big prairie sky, the cheery song of the meadowlark and the vibrant colour of the wild flowers are symbolic of her motto "light & colour".

Éveline studied art and interior design at L'Ecole des Arts et Metiers in Montreal. After the youngest of four children started kindergarten, Éveline was able to resume her career as a language specialist, teaching French and English, and now adding Art and Choral work to her teaching duties in South Shore schools outside of Montreal.

Music is another passion. Over several years, Éveline regularly played the piano at Seniors Retirement homes, leading sing-alongs to brighten everyone's day. Soon Éveline was to be a co-founder of the Entre-nous choir of retired teachers in Ottawa, which she directed for ten years until her retirement in 2006. 

Eveline and her husband both enjoy travel, art and history and on every trip they seek out the local art museums to feast upon the paintings of the great masters of the world...the Louvre in Paris, the Ufizi in Florence, the Tate in London and St. Peter's in Rome are juat a few of the wonderful must-see galleries in the world. She is also a great admirer of the works by the Canadian Group of Seven. Over the years, her interests in languages, choral work and painting became constant companions in a full life with her family, but it wasn't until retirement that she found more time to set up the easel once again.

With a keen eye for light and colour in her paintings, Éveline found herself exploring the varied tones of gold in the prairie fields of her childhood, the multiple shades of snow in winter landscapes always searching for new ways of expressing her relationship to nature. As you will see when you browse through her galleries, light and colour are constant elements in this artist's work.

Light and colour...symbols of optimism to fill each day.