International Women’s Day Exhibition 2026
March 7 - 25, 2026
International Women’s Day Exhibition 2026
Opening Reception: March 14, 2026 from 2-5 pm
Brief
Explanation & History
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality. This exhibition will highlight works by our women artist, including; Nancy Boyd, Isla Burns, Camrose Ducote, Jennifer Hornyak, Joice M Hall, Dorothy Knowles, Elza Mayhew, Amy Modahl, Elzbieta Krawecka, Hilda Oomen, Linda Nardelli, Robin Smith-Peck, Barbara Milne, and Diana Zasadny.
Historically women have been overshadowed in the arts by their counter-parts for so many years. It is just until recent years that we see women starting to flourish in the artists. Great artists such as Mary Pratt, Helen Frankenthaler, Georgia O’Keefe, and Emily Carr have paved the way for today’s women in the arts. This show is to exemplify the strong and innovative art that women artists of today are creating.
Goal & Mission
#GiveToGain
As 2026 mission for International Women’s day (IWD) is #GiveToGain, any sales from this exhibition will have a percentage going towards Safe Haven. Safe Haven Foundation of Canada was born from one couple’s personal mission to develop a program dedicated to keeping homeless, and at-risk teenage girls safe, off the streets, and in school.
Installation image (following page; left to right):
Linda Nardelli, La Cascade, mixed media on board, 36” x 48”
Linda Nardelli, Adagio, mixed media on board, 42” x 30”
Hilda Oomen, Later the same day, oil on board, 12” x 9” (top)
Hilda Oomen, February Sun #2, oil on board, 14” x 11” (bottom)
Hilda Oomen, Field Roses, oil on canvas, 15” x 12” (right)
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Glancing Light, Milton Abbey, photo etching, hand tinted, A/P 1/3, 14” x 19” (left on pillar)
Joice M Hall, RCA, Full Moon, Eearly Dawn, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”
Jennifer Hornyak, RCA (series, left to right):
1. Coral with Trench Green, oil on board, 12” x 12”
2. Terracotta with Blue Ground, oil on board, 12” x 12”
3. Red with Flaming Orange, oil on board, 12” x 12”
4. Rounded White with Black Vase, oil on linen, 24” x 24”
5. Landscape with Ice Blue, oil on board, 8” x 8” (top)
6. Coin d’Ete, oil on board, 8” x 10” (bottom left)
7. House with Field, collage & oil on board, 8” x 8”
Barbara Milne, RCA, Light & Shade - Garden, acrylic on canvs, 48” x 36”
Installation image (left to right):
Amy Modahl, Red Edge II, oil, ink, graphite on wood, 15” x 20”
Elza Mayhew, LLD, RCA, Kin, 1975, bronze 2/6, 7.5” x 11” x 3.75” (sculpture)
Joice M Hall, RCA, (clockwise, top left): 1. Filtered Moon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”,
2. Filtered Moon 2, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
3. Nocturnal Light with Crescent Moon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
4. Nocturnal Light with Supermoon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
Elza Mayhew, LLD, RCA, Iphigenia (Small), 1961, stone & wenge wood base, 12” x 20” x 7.5” (sculpture)
Nancy Boyd
Singularity by Marie Howe
“Can molecules recall it? What once was? Before anything happened?
No I, no We, no one. No was. No verb. No noun.
Only a tiny tiny dot brimming with is is is is is All everything home.”
-inspiration for Boyd’s work
Nancy Boyd, Inky Mischief, mixed media on Mylar, 29.5” x 36”,
Nancy Boyd, Fresh Echo, mixed media on Mylar, 29.5” x 29.5”
Installation image (left to right):
Barbara Milne, RCA, Light & Shade - Garden, oil on canvas, 48” x 36”
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Suspended Time, The Boboli Gardens, hand tinted photo etching 11/30, 26” x 32”
Nancy Boyd, Inky Mischief, mixed media on Mylar, 29.5” x 36”, Nancy Boyd, Fresh Echo, mixed media on Mylar, 29.5” x 29.5”
Isla Burns
“Whether looking at art or making art I expect to be emotionally lifted, to be taken out of the ordinary and transported into the unexpected and extraordinary. The feeling is visceral while at the same time it is also spiritual. The combination of these two sensations is the constant that keeps me making sculpture. Too often our eyes take for granted what we are seeing we are not as tuned into the feedback from our visual senses as we are with music or smell or touch. For me, an image requires being aware of a visual presence and in that impassive silence of looking I want to be taken into and beyond the realm of form. There is a universal aesthetic that contains these sensations and qualities and it can be found in great art of all cultures. It is this enduring transcending quality that makes the art of ancient cultures as relevant today as it was at the time it was created. I aspire to the constants in art, these are the things that move me, for they are truly expressive of all the aspects in the beauty of the human condition.” -
Isla Burns
“Let the beauty we love be what we do” - Jealuddin Rumi
Quote taken from, “A Meeting by the River.” Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt
Isla Burns, RCA, Sea Warior, forged steel and wood, 60”(h) x 35”(l) x 16”(d) (includes table) (left)
Isla Burns, RCA, Faith, 2021, forged steel, Faith, 24.5” (h) x14”(w) x14”(d) (right)
Isla Burns, RCA, Black Orcid, 2012, forged steel, 21”(h) x 17.5”(l) x 10.5”(d)
Isla Burns, RCA, Faith, 2021, forged steel, Faith, 24.5” (h) x14”(w) x14”(d)
Jennifer Dickson
Photo: Peter Wedgewood
Trained as a painter and printmaker in the English academic tradition, Jennifer Dickson first picked up a camera to capture her images in 1975. The lack of a formal background in photography has proved a strength, in that being unaware of “the rules” she has broken them with impunity.
At five years old, in a Catholic convent, she was introduced to the 18th century approach to watercolour. She takes great delight in this medium, both for itself, and to introduce colour to the photo-etchings on which her European reputation is based. As a young painter she had the luxury of painting her watercolours and oils on the spot. Few artists now enjoy such privilege. Therefore the camera enables the hunter-voyeur to bring back to the studio images which can evolve in a more contemplative way.
For Jennifer Dickson the photograph is a point of entry and not an end in itself. In her mixed media paintings the photo blow-up establishes the compositional structure. The gestural handling of light, shade, mood and weather evolves from the freedom of the act of painting in acrylics. A process of burial and retrieval, and a strong sense of ritual leads to the final resolution of the image.
Jennifer Dickson’s etchings are not literal documents. She attempts to capture the spirit of the place, using colour and light to evoke the transient nature of beauty.
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Glancing Light, Milton Abbey, photo etching, hand tinted, A/P 1/3, 14” x 19”
Camrose Ducote
“My work starts simply with that impulse to enter a quiet space where I am able to explore with an open mind and my materials at hand. Spatulas, sponges, sandpaper, a spray bottle. These are some of the “tools” of my particular trade.
The beginning is always scary yet full of promise and potential. The end result can never be anticipated. I start with applying on to heavy printmaking paper a heavy putty which is put down in thin layers using a wide spatula. This is generally followed by gel medium “skins” as I like to call them. Once dry, the surface is then sanded, leaving a suggestion as to the movement of the hand. A wash of raw umber paint is applied only to be mostly wiped away, thereby leaving particular gestural marks. Interesting remnants from previously discarded pieces sometimes find their way onto a piece in progress. The gel skins are applied with the intention to both obscure as well as reveal that which lies underneath. What remains is the mostly smooth whitish surface from which perhaps an oozing transparent red iron-oxide drip travels down and over and sometimes seemingly under the surface. A push/ pull of the hand, the head and the heart creating a tension created by opposites, dark against light, smooth against rough.
There is creating then excavating in the search for a quality which seems right although I would be hard-pressed to define exactly what I mean by this.
It is at best a process which is intuitive and full of happy surprises.”
-Ducote
Camrose Ducote, Optomist’s Treasure, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Camrose Ducote, Salvage, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Installation image (left to right):
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Lord Burlington’s Conversazione, photograph 2/5, 13” x 9.5”
Isla Burns, RCA, Black Orchid, forged steel, 21”(h) x 17.5”(l) x 10.5”(d)
Amy Modahl, Red Edge II, oil, ink, graphite on board, 15” x 20”
Elza Mayhew, LLD, RCA, Kin, 1975, bronze 2/6, 7.5” x 11” x 3.75” (sculpture)
Camrose Ducote, Rockin’ Salvage, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Camrose Ducote, Optomist’s Treasure, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Camrose Ducote, Salvage, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Installation image (left to right):
Camrose Ducote, Rockin’ Salvage, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Camrose Ducote, Optomist’s Treasure, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Camrose Ducote, Salvage, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Isla Burns, RCA, Sea Warior, forged steel and wood, 60”(h) x 35”(l) x 16”(d) (includes table)
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Glancing Light, Milton Abbey, photo etching, hand tinted, A/P 1/3, 14” x 19”
“A collage of studio shots taken between 2011-13 of my studio in West Kelowna that overlooks Green Bay, Okanagan Lake, the vineyards of Cedar Creek Winery across the lake, and Okanagan Mountain Park in the distance.
I have a one hundred and eighty degree view of this magnificent scene, and since the year 2000, it has been the source and, with variations, the subject of over sixty paintings. Most of these have been panoramas documenting weather variants through the seasons, natural disasters (the fire of 2003), and the suburban encroachment of nature.”
Joice M Hall, RCA, Full Moon, Early Dawn, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”
Joice M Hall, RCA, Nocturnal Light with Supermoon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
Joice M Hall, RCA, Filtered Moon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
Joice M Hall, RCA, Nocturnal Light with Crescent Moon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
Image (left to right):
Jennifer Hornyak
“Every year it becomes even more important to recognize the advances made in ensuring women take their rightful place in our modern world and, particularly, in the future landscape. ”
-Hornyak
Installation image (following page; left to right):
Jennifer Hornyak, RCA
Coral with Trench Green, oil on board, 12” x 12”
Terracotta with Blue Ground, oil on board, 12” x 12”
Red with Flaming Orange, oil on board, 12” x 12”
Rounded White with Black Vase, oil on linen, 24” x 24”
Landscape with Ice Blue, oil on board, 8” x 8” (top)
Coin d’Ete, oil on board, 8” x 10” (bottom left)
House with Field, collage & oil on board, 8” x 8”(bottom Right)
Jennifer Hornyak, RCA, Coral with Trench Green, oil on board, 12” x 12”
Jennifer Hornyak, RCA, Rounded White with Black Vase, oil on linen, 24” x 24”
Dorothy Knowles
“During my formative years as a practising artist I felt I had to work a little harder to get to the same place as a male artist. During the sixties I did hear someone comment that “that housewife can really paint.” However, I had such a desire to paint I didn’t think about gender. I just sort of felt like one of the artists. I never felt really discriminated against though, yes, certain artists were a little thrilled with their own masculinity. Most of the artists I knew were male.
There were some significant female role models to look to, however. A strong influence on my career was the landscape artist Reta Cowley, who was my art teacher and who later became my close friend. Another significant female presence on the Saskatoon art scene was Wynona Mulcaster, who was very active in the community. I was so glad to have the opportunity to know so many significant artists and to be part of such a vibrant art world where women could express their creativity and carve out their own space.
A big supporter of my work was my late husband, Bill Perehudoff, a Colour Field artist who encouraged me and helped me a great deal. Although I was married, I made the choice to use my maiden name as this is what most of the professional female artists in New York were doing.
All artists have had the experience of being excluded from certain galleries and exhibitions, but it didn’t deter me. Resilience is empowering. I was fortunate to meet professors, critics and artists who have been deeply involved in art, excited about painting and open to unique and individual voices.”
-Knowles
Dorothy Knowles, CM, COM, RCA, Reflections of Clouds & Mountains, 1992, acrylic on paper, 25.75” x 40.25”
Following page, Installation image (left to right):
Elza Mayhew, RCA, Earth, 1961, bronze 3/6, 24”(h) x 13”(w) x 12”(d)
Dorothy Knowles, CM, COM, RCA, Grass, Wheat, Trees, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
Elzbieta Krawecka, Her Prescence, oil on board, 30” x 60”(partial)
Elzbieta Krawecka
“I paint not specific places, but states of being; inner turbulence, quiet resilience, and the elemental forces of wind, water, and sky. Born in Krakow, raised between Poland and the Middle East, and now based in Toronto, my work is shaped by movement across cultures and terrains.
Using thickly layered oils and translucent glazes, to create boundless spaces, where edges dissolve and time feels suspended, I create atmospheric terrains that belong to no single geography yet evoke a sense of collective memory; spaces that feel intimately familiar across experience and imagination.
My practice does not seek to resolve meaning, but to hold space, inviting emotion to surface and unfold uniquely in each viewer. Landscape, for me, is a living, dynamic presence that mirrors and awakens inner mood and emotion. I explore the moods of nature and the drama of landscape, capturing ephemeral qualities of light, shadow, reflection, colour, and texture.
Drawing on the Beautiful and the Sublime, the paintings move between serenity and vastness, tranquility and tension. The landscape becomes a threshold between outer environment and inner experience, transforming the space it inhabits and acting as a catalyst for reflection, memory, and inner spaciousness. It invites one to pause, dwell, reflect.”
-Krawecka
Elzbieta Krawecka, Boundless Place, oil on board, 30” x 30”
Following page, Installation image (left to right):
Barbara Milne, RCA, Light & Shade - Garden, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”
Dorothy Knowles, CM, COM, RCA, Grass, Wheat, Trees, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
Elzbieta Krawecka, Her Prescence, oil on board, 30” x 60”(partial) Eve Leader, Untitled 2, oil on Mylar, 14” x 11” (top) Eve Leader, Untitled 1, oil on Mylar, 14.75” x 10.5” (bottom)
Elza Mayhew
Elza Mayhew (1916 – 2004) is perhaps one of Canada’s best known sculptors from the modernist period. She was chosen to represent Canada at the 1964 Venice Biennale with Harold Town, at Expo 67 in Montreal and at Expo 86 in Vancouver…. Her independence, her dedication to modern form, and her determination to create despite many challenges, marks Mayhew as one of a number of strong women artists…. A war widow with two children, [she] studied with Jan Zach from 1955 to 1958 and became entirely committed to her sculpture.
Michael Morris, Vision into Reality: Art Gallery of Great Victoria Early Years, 1951 - 1973, 2009.
Elza Mayhew, LLD, RCA, Iphigenia (small), 1961, composite stone, 12.5”(h) x 20”(l) x 7.5”(d)
Elza Mayhew, LLD, RCA, Earth, 1961, bronze 3/6, 24”(h) x 13”(w) x 12”(d)
Barbara Milne
Milne’s paintings are rich in symbols and metaphors. Shape, colour, and textures combine and resonate to describe a parallel experience of place. Memory plays a complex role in Milne’s paintings. It not only involves the physical reconstruction of the artist’s experience of a place: but also embodies a recollection of previous paintings, histories, and styles. While Milne’s landscapes derive from real settings, the artist transcends the particularities of place, producing images that are richly layered, evoking a sense of wonder.
“Season [series] represents a continuum of work reflecting upon nature; as we encounter it and as we remember it.
Responding to both the intimacy of the garden and the grandeur of l andscape, I explore our fragile relationship to the land. Through observation, photographs and sketches, my process is one of obscuring and revealing, editing and amplifying. Works grow organically as one mark responds to another.
These paintings are meditations on static and flux, the specific and the monumental, and the temporal nature of place, both internal and external.”
-Milne
Barbara Milne, RCA, Light & Shade - Garden, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”
Barbara Milne, RCA, Woven - Garden, 2022, oil on canvas, 48” x 96”
Installation image (left to right):
Barbara Milne, RCA, Woven - Garden, 2022, oil on canvas, 48” x 96”
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Glancing Light, Milton Abbey, photo etching, hand tinted, A/P 1/3, 14” x 19”
Elza Mayhew, LLD, RCA, Queen, 1975, bronze a/p, 14.5”(h) x 11.75”(w) x 8”(d)
Jennifer Hornyak, RCA
1. Coral with Trench Green, oil on board, 12” x 12”
2. Terracotta with Blue Ground, oil on board, 12” x 12”
3. Red with Flaming Orange, oil on board, 12” x 12”
4. Rounded White with Black Vase, oil on linen, 24” x 24”
5. Landscape with Ice Blue, oil on board, 8” x 8” (top)
6. Coin d’Ete, oil on board, 8” x 10” (bottom left)
7. House with Field, collage & oil on board, 8” x 8”(bottom Right)
Diana Zasadny, Shades of Sapphire, acrylic on canvas, 30” x 30” (partial)
Elza Mayhew, LLD, RCA, Iphigenia (small), 1961, composite stone, 12.5”(h) x 20”(l) x 7.5”(d) (partial)
Photo: Lincoln Charles
Amy Modahl
“The home tells stories. The arrangement of furniture, stacked objects, negative spaces, worn floors, hard shapes, and soft cloth speak viscerally layering present and past experience. In this current body of paintings, I record and respond materially in graphite, ink, pastel, and oil on wood, canvas, or found paper.
In recent years, I’ve worked with paint, print, drawing, performance, and stop-motion animation to investigate the vocabulary of space, visual-translation, and human and material gesture. I often consider whether words affect perception, pointing speakers to some observations and experiences. Thus, I attempt to reach beyond words with repetition and slow visual and tactile contemplation where material an d ground become a physical and visual language giving form to intuitive connection.”
-Modahl
Amy Modahl, Untitled 8-19, oil & graphite on board, 20” x 15”
Amy Modahl, Red Edge II, oil, ink & graphite on board, 15” x 20”
Linda Nardelli
Photo: Vern Minard Art
“Creation moves through me as both storm and stillness—a force rising from the land and moving through the body, demanding my utmost trust. In this space, something primal ignites the creative spark, a living awareness that knows itself as nature, alive and responsive. Abstract work becomes the language that can hold this experience.
The somatic quality present in my art cannot be translated literally; it must be sensed. This work opens the subconscious and the felt sense beneath words, where belonging is remembered, and art reveals what is already moving within us—quietly and powerfully.”
-Nardelli
Installation image (left to right):
Joice M Hall, RCA, Nocturnal Light with Supermoon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
Joice M Hall, RCA, Filtered Moon, acrylic on canvas, 12” x 12”
Linda Nardelli, La Cascade, mixed media on wood panel, 36” x 48”
Linda Nardelli, Adagio, mixed media on wood panel, 42” x 30”
Camrose Ducote, Optomist’s Treasure, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Linda Nardelli, La Cascade, mixed media on wood panel, 36” x 48”
Linda Nardelli, Adagio, mixed media on wood panel, 42” x 30”
Hilda Oomen
“My art grows from a lifelong love of gardening, where flowers and landscapes embody resilience, beauty, and quiet strength. Like a garden that nurtures and transforms, my paintings celebrate presence, joy, and the life force that mirrors the spirit of women—honouring their growth and power on International Women’s Day.”
-Oomen
Image (top to bottom):
Hilda Oomen, Later The Same Day, oil on wood panel, 12”x 9”
Hilda Oomen, February Sun 2, oil on wood panel, 11” x 14”
Hilda Oomen, Field of Roses, oil on canvas, 15” x 12”
Installation image (following page, left to right):
Camrose Ducote, Rockin’ Salvage, mixed media on paper on board, 30” x 30”
Hilda Oomen, Later The Same Day, oil on wood panel, 12”x 9”
Hilda Oomen, February Sun 2, oil on wood panel, 11” x 14”
Hilda Oomen, Field of Roses, oil on canvas, 15” x 12”
Robin Smith-Peck
“In this prolific new series of over fifty works, Smith Peck draws us deep into the heart of Northern Canadian wilderness. While the wonder of childhood permeates every piece, the landscapes shift: alongside the lush undergrowth and soft caribou mosses of Labrador are the sparser, wind-swept terrains surrounding Yellowknife, where she lived for more than a decade after completing graduate studies at the University of Alberta.”
quote from Invitations to Imagine and Wander
An essay on the In the Woodlands exhibition by Robin Smith Peck By Agnieszka Matejko -Smith Peck
Robin Smith-Peck, In the Woodlands #16, arylic on canvas on birch panel, 30” x 36”
Robin Smith-Peck, In the Woodlands #26, arylic on canvas on birch panel, 36” x 30”
Installation images (left to right):
Robin Smith-Peck, In the Woodlands #46, arylic on canvas on birch panel, 20” x 20”
Robin Smith-Peck, In the Woodlands #16, arylic on canvas on birch panel, 30” x 36”
Robin Smith-Peck, In the Woodlands #45, arylic on canvas on birch panel, 20” x 20”
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Suspended Time, The Boboli Gardens, hand tinted photo etching 11/30, 26” x 32”
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Lord Burlingtons Conversazione, photo 1/5, 13” x 9.5”
Isla Burns, RCA, Black Orchid, steel, 21” (h) x 10.5”(w) x 17”(d)
Diana Zasadny, Shades of Saphire, acrylic on canvas, 30” X 30”
Diana Zasadny, Towards Elkwater, acrylic on canvas, 30” X 30”
Amy Modahl, Untitled 8-19, oil & graphite on board, 20” x 15” (partial)
Amy Modahl, Red Edge II, oil, ink & graphite on board, 15” x 20”
Diana Zasadny
“Whether amongst the trees in the Rocky Mountains or walking under the vast prairie sky, I take this inspiration back to the studio with the challenge to convey nature’s beauty. The natural world sparks my imagination and my desire to share the experience through painting, using acrylic on canvas. I love to experiment with colour and texture, building surface complexity while celebrating nature’s design in my artwork.”
-Zasadny
Diana Zasadny, The Warmth of the Sun, acrylic on canvas, 30” x 60”
Images (Left to Right):
Diana Zasadny, Shades of Saphire, acrylic on canvas, 30” X 30”
Diana Zasadny, Towards Elkwater, acrylic on canvas, 30” X 30”
Installation image (previous page, left to right):
Linda Nardelli, La Cascade, mixed media on wood panel, 36” x 48”
Linda Nardelli, Adagio, mixed media on wood panel, 42” x 30”
Jennifer Dickson, RA, Suspended Time, The Boboli Gardens, hand tinted photo etching 11/30, 26” x 32”
Nancy Boyd, Inky Mischief, mixed media on Mylar, 29.5” x 36”
Nancy Boyd, Fresh Echo, mixed media on Mylar, 29.5” x 29.5”
Diana Zasadny, The Warmth of the Sun, acrylic on canvas, 30” x 60”
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