Rails End Artist Member Profiles

Finely crafted ceramics - one of a kind bowls, mugs, platters and vases. 

Upcycled glassware by Artech Glass Blowing Studios, a traditional glassblowing studio nestled in the Highlands of Ontario, Canada producing great upcycled glass tableware and handmade barware.  

Light reflecting on glass has been a lifelong fascination. In 2019 I was captivated when introduced to warm glass at  Haliburton School of Art & Design. I enjoy the adventures of mastering the unpredictable nature of glass shifts when exposing skillfully crafted shards to heat and pressure to produce fun and functional one-of-a-kind art.  Inspired by a rich life immersed in nature, each creation offers a multisensory experience influenced through the beauty of light, colour, shape and texture.

All Lisa's work speaks about utility but more importantly about being nourished! 

Janet Bradley works mostly in oils and sometimes in acrylic. Her favorite subjects are horses, birds and kids. She finds landscapes a challenge but she continues to accept the challenge by painting beautiful Haliburton County. 

 Art and creativity have been important elements of Marleen’s life.  She embraces her passion through oil painting, taking her inspiration from the beauty of the Canadian landscape. Having been fortunate to have travelled and lived throughout much of Canada, she is in constant awe of Canada’s vast and natural beauty. The changing seasons and the vibrancy of the layers of colours inspire her to create art of strong colours and bold shapes using broad, relaxed strokes to create impressionistic-rea

Rachel Charyk is an artist born and raised in Georgina, Ontario. She graduated OCAD University in 2015 majoring in Drawing and Painting.  Rachel loves traveling around rural Ontario, discovering it's beauty and translating it onto the canvas. 

I am a local teen and lover of words! I am a homeschool alumnus, avid book reader, and cellist. I hope I can inspire you to love each individual word and the beauty of small things. 

I have only been painting for a few years and am called an emerging artist. I like the challenge of trying to get my ideas to come to "life". I love colour, creating, and learning. My profession is nursing.

Ian Darragh is a photographer specializing in nature and environmental issues. He was editor-in-chief of Canadian Geographic magazine and has published feature articles in National Geographic. He is a lifetime member of the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust. Ian's nature greeting cards are for sale at the Rails End Gallery Shop or via his website.

I discovered the joy of art while teaching art as a part of my curriculum assignment as a teacher. I have worked with printmaking and clay and a few years ago experienced acrylic paint pouring. While pouring with an idea in mind, the unpredictability of the vibrant paints and how they react together is exciting and very often surprising. 

I am an observational artist.  My  paintings are scenes of everyday moments and experiences. I focus on capturing the essence of a subject rather than expressly copying the information I see in order to create a work that expresses a sense of time, place and feeling.

My love of the natural world, canoeing, camping, hiking, and use of topographic maps used during many of my trips have inspired this series. I combine pattern, texture, colour, and negative space with animal and landscape imagery.

I have a deep interest in working with various mediums, mainly watercolour, acrylic and graphite. I started out drawing portraits when I was quite young. My goal today is to try to share my work as much as possible.  I believe the job of an Artist is to help introduce some beautiful culture to our everyday lives.

 I have a natural ability to replicate what I see or create images from my imagination. Now that I am retired and my kids are grown, I have the time for doing what I was meant to do that brings much joy to my soul. I saw along the way that my eyes continued to develop even if I wasn’t practicing my art.  I defined myself as a drawer, not realizing I could paint till I tried it! I have a deep love for nature and photography.   

 HEARTMADE + HANDMADE
Ignis Borealis is a meditation on the elements that come together to create a hand-forged piece of jewellery. Made with heart and hands in Toronto, Canada by Lori Francescutti. 

I discovered that I was an artist, just like mom and grandmother before me, during a course with Lila Lewis Irving at the Haliburton School of the Arts. Since then I have explored watercolour crayons and acrylics and usually combine them to make paintings which illustrate quotations I like. I also love to write out what I have learned from living life. I just completed a trilogy exploring the 3 aspects of Soul Misery. My books are available in the Gallery Shop.

Mixed media visual art, encaustic paintings and magnets.

I am an avid acrylic landscape painter who draws most of my inspiration from the beautiful Haliburton Highlands. I use my own photos, often taken from the bow of a canoe in the quiet of early morning.  My colourful paintings are rendered on texturized canvas, a technique learned at the Haliburton School of Art and Design. I love playing light against shadow, exaggerating colours and simplifying shapes. People say my work sings with vitality. 

I've been doing INTARSIA for about 18 years. I'm self taught and I use, primarily, exotic woods (bloodwood, yellowheart etc). I compare INTARSIA to stained glass but with wood. Pieces of wood are cut (according to grain), shaped and fit together to make pictures of animals, landscapes etc.  

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to work in exploration camps across Canada. This has allowed me the opportunity to cross the barren lands of the NWT and Nunavut, climb mountains in Yukon and BC, stomp through string bogs in Labrador and Newfoundland and wander through many amazing landscapes of Canada. I now take great pleasure in transposing our Canadian landscape onto canvas using either oil or watercolour. Whenever I paint - its all one big adventure.

Susanne creates stoneware pottery, both hand-built and wheel-thrown, including mugs, bowls, and platters.  Her work is inspired by the natural beauty of her surroundings in the Haliburton Highlands.  Some pieces are imprinted with real pine boughs and pine cones, creating a true Haliburton souvenir.  Others have the ever-popular dragonfly motif.  Her glazes are lead-free and food-safe, and reflect the colours of nature.

Gord is an elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, The Society of Canadian Artists, and enjoys memberships in the Niagara Frontier Watercolour Society, The Haliburton Arts Council, Rails End Gallery, and is Ontario's representative of the International Watercolour Society. Gord is a certified Adult Educator. He is represented by various galleries in Ontario and participates in selected exhibitions throughout the year. 

Laurie Jones is a visual artist and currently the Curator at Rails End Gallery. 

 I am a mosaic artist. I make unique pieces with a variety of material such as dishes, crockery, stained glass, tile and found objects to create my art. My specialty is either "pique assiette" (stolen dishes) or glass-on-glass mosaics using stained glass. I love making memorial pieces incorporating a special dish, cup or jewelry that belonged to a loved one. I enjoy sourcing for unique material and inspiration at thrift and antique shops for my creations. 

I create digital art, all occasion cards and photography. I studied Fine Arts at Redeemer College and Ceramics at Sheridan College.  Now I live in Haliburton, off-grid, with my husband and our dog. I painted abstract oils, but since developing an allergy to the paints, I've been doing abstract digital art and photography.  My inspiration comes from how I see and feel an image and what I am experiencing at the moment. I am an off-grid digital artist. 

L & N Beadworks is Louise Ewing and Nicki Brazier-Hagarty. Traditional  beading, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and cuffs for all occasions. 

Lyn is a local potter who takes inspiration from nature. She is intrigued by texture and thrown and altered forms. 

These handcrafted items are made from locally sourced wood. Trees that provided the raw material were typically destined to become firewood before being turned on a lathe into useful, long-lasting heirlooms. The process involved roughing out the item then letting it sit for upwards of six months until the moisture content was at a manageable level. Only then were the pieces finish turned to reveal the surprises found within. The surface treatment is a combination of beeswax and mineral oil.

My art is a process of self discovery, as I express ideas, memories, and dreams. I’m inspired by colours, shapes & textures in my environment, featuring a broad

spectrum of life and experiences. From painting in the Andes of Peru, the coast of

Nova Scotia to Haliburton Lake, I welcome each creation as I explore with a blend of self and spirit. I am proud to be a Canadian. I’m motivated by the vastness of our Canada, and the richness of our environment.

Doug started painting 10 yrs ago and is a Member of the Barrie Art Club and Rails End Gallery.  He started lessons in water color then acrylic and finally oils. He is also a Member of the summer Tour De Forest in Haliburton County.

I call them landscapes, though they are not traditional depictions of a vista. These original works on paper reflect a personal view of the earth and offer the viewer an opportunity to reflect on their own relationship to the natural environment. My process is organic, responding to ink and paint pooling on wet paper, once dry, I draw and collage.

Haliburton based artisan, Pat Moffatt, is a lifelong fibre artist. Pat started by learning traditional fibre art forms; sewing, quilting, knitting and crochet. Since learning to tat in 2003, she is always experimenting and looking for a modern take on this centuries old form of delicate lace making. She loves to experiment by combining her tatted pieces with other fibre arts or using tatted pieces as inspiration with other art forms.

 A professional stained glass artist of 40+ years, Chris specializes primarily in custom work and restorations. As a jewellery designer, she creates individual, unusual and original travel-inspired handmade pieces, these being the result of worldwide travels collecting various beads and gems. Innovative designs in both jewellery and glasswork, keeps her work fresh, exciting and interpretive of classical design.

I am an artist and expressive arts therapist. I am often inspired by emotional experiences. I love to play with colours that contrast one another.

Huw Morgan is a professional art and event photographer based in southern
Ontario. He has had solo and group exhibitions of his work in Lyndsay and Toronto. Most recently, he had a solo show called City in Motion at Gallery 44 in Toronto. Huw is a graduate of the photography program at Haliburton School of Art and Design. 

As a self-taught photographer I''m always on the lookout for anything of visual interest. However I am particularly drawn to landscape images. I find myself constantly chasing the light. I embrace image altering techniques if I feel they will help me produce what's in my mind's eye.

I paint landscapes, still life and more recently, abstract.  I'm self-taught but have studied privately and taken classes at the Toronto School of Art. As a late career artist, I enjoy a rich background of numerous art shows and sales.  I'm inspired by nature's awe and beauty which I feel finds it's way into my paintings.

Lisa Pararh is a visual artist that is currently turning tea bags into small works of art to be used as bookmarks or diplalyed on their own. 

The artist creates luscious cold pressed organic goat's milk soap in a variety of moulded shapes and scents.  These simply perfect soaps are a great gift for others, or to enjoy their natural ingredients as part of your daily regimen. This artist loves utilizing vivid colours in her creations echoed from her love of nature.  This boldness of colour reminds her and others, through her creations, that life has vibrancy and to embrace those special moments.

It starts with an image that triggers an emotion. I aim to capture the mood and feeling in my paintings. I paint using acrylics. I work each section 2-3 times till I feel I have achieved the detail desired. This process evolves over several days. Once done I give it a moment to do its thing and grab my attention. My paintings focus on the different subject matter, each reflecting life memories that evoke a sense of warmth and joy. 

In my art practice I work with many different materials including fibre, metal, glass and clay. I strive to make as little waste as possible in my studio. I attended Haliburton School of Art and Design for seven years. During my final year I wrote "The FEED Manifesto" which I use as a guide for my art and my life.

Keli Schmidt brings 16 years of industrial pattern and sample-making experience to the Haliburton Clothing Co. (She moved to Hali from the GTA in 2020). The HCC is dedicated to providing high-quality locally and ethically-made sustainable fashion tailored for life in the Highlands. Every item is designed, printed and made here by Keli.   

Storytelling and reading have been sentinel pieces of my life. Whether it teaches me something, transports me away from my day-to-day reality, or makes me laugh, I enjoy reading all kinds of books. There is always one within reach, be it in my bag or on my nightstand, to read. Now, I hope my books will play that same wonderful part in your day. 

My abstract, impressionist paintings, rich in colour, texture and depth, reflect a personal style that enhances any environment. My art is happy and I hope to make the buyers happy.

Margaret paints with acrylics and enjoys the challenge of mixing the perfect colours. Like singer-songwriter Ray Stevens, she believes “everything is beautiful in its own way” and she likes to reflect that beauty in her paintings. Margaret is overcome with a sense of panic when one painting is finished before another is on the go. 

In a world that is, at times, woeful and worrisome, Teddy prefers to focus on the whimsical. He wants to create paintings that are small islands of joy and comfort. Like the late, great Norman Rockwell, Teddy avoids the “sordid and the ugly” and paints life as he’d like it to be. His benchmark for success is a smile on the face of those who view his art. 

Janet Trull is a retired art and literacy teacher, currently working as an artist and a freelance writer in Haliburton.  She paints in fluid acrylics and experiments with mixed media.  Interpreting the colours and textures of Haliburton landscapes, she layers her canvases in the rough and random way that nature layers the forests. She believes there is much beauty in chaos. 

 Scott Michael Walling is a multidisciplinary artist working in numerous mediums; analog & digital photography, printmaking, jewellery, fibre arts, sculpture, painting, mixed media and beyond. Strongly inspired by organic elements, a unifying theme of texture is present throughout his work. Growing up in Peterborough, the Haliburton Highlands are now home.  

Jackie's functional Stoneware designs are hand built, imprinted with leaves (rhubarb, hosta) or lace to create texture. Her  unique serving dishes, vases  and bowls  are glazed in organic colour combinations. Her decorative Raku  in iridescent copper glazes features vases, platters, birds, animals and fish are displayed on drift wood and  barnboard. Her popular Christmas ornaments are truly one of a kind.

Inspired by beautiful Haliburton Highlands I've been painting the flora & fauna since moving here 15 years ago. My grade 10 art teacher, Robert Bateman, was a huge influence, leading me to attend OCA. Graduating in 1970, I pursued commercial art which eventually lost its appeal. I'm now happily "doing my own thing" here in these gorgeous surroundings.

Nature's little dramas, relationships and communities are similar to ours. We parent, we grow where we are nourished, we build communities where we are supported. My hope is that my art reminds us of how connected we are to nature. Each piece is hand drawn, mounted on wood and resined. All pieces are unique. 

Renée creates unique stoneware and raku pottery.  Each of Renée`s pots begins on the potters wheel.  When pots are leather hard they are trimmed and meticulously hand carved in patterns that are evocative of dancing leaves.  Her intricate surfaces can also be found on mugs and bowls. 

After a number of years juggling a demanding business career while re-igniting my passion for photography, I decided to retire early and pursue a new career as a landscape photographer.  I get tremendous satisfaction out of capturing hundreds of images and then selecting the photograph that has captured just the right amount of light and colour that allows others to see a spectacular scene the way I did.

My artwork begins with a word. I use my handwriting, and the edge of the line as the foundation for each painting. From there I add colours and pattern that you or I might associate with the chosen word. My inspiration is found in current events and human nature.