Contact the artist via: https://imprimo.ca/artists/della-hunter/profile

Making art is a romance. The first step to creating an art work is to fall in love. The image has to inspire love or it’s just a chore. At first the love affair is tentative. Ruinous mistakes are easy to make, but as romance blossoms the relationship becomes bolder, exploratory, free and even reckless. Art can entail weeks of creative focus and the romance is intense; coloured with the madness of obsession. Love makes us leap off the creative cliff. The love affair is fully expressed when the piece is complete, but, the romance lingers on for a space, drawing long contemplation and sweet remembrance. Then comes the divorce, and a new romance. Such is the creative heart.

As an artist, I love working with oil on canvas but enjoy other mediums. Sometimes it seems the work needs one medium or several. Oils offer the most freedom and scope. I do work in acrylic and pastel, but to much lesser extent. I wanted to be an artist since I was a child and have been painting and drawing for several years. It has been interesting to see how my work and style have changed over time. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

My blog documents changes in my work and interests that I wish to share from time to time.

Della Hunter (Joye) studied fine arts at the University of Regina. She did not complete her MFA, but chose to see the galleries in Europe first hand. She has studied art history, art criticism, painting and drawing technique through books and online courses. She taught a drawing and art theory course with the University of Regina, Life Long Learning Centre until that programme closed in 2023. She is now teaching drawing and art theory as well as pencil crayon drawing with the Neil Balkwill Centre.

In, 2023, Della participated in a Brushworks Art Guild, invitational group show at the Government House Gallery in Regina.

In 2019, she joined the Brushworks Art Guild and showed work bi-annually in group shows. She held the positions of Vice-President, Education Co-ordinator and Show Co-ordinator. She left the guild in 2023 to pursue new directions in her art.

Della had her first solo show at the Little Manitou Art Gallery, April 15, 2022 to May 30th, 2022. Her second solo show of traditional and contemporary still-life was on display at the QEII Gallery at Government House in Regina until June 23rd, 2024.

In 2021, two of her still life works were among the finalists in an international competition (https://www.fusionartps.com/2nd-annual-still-life-art-exhibition-august-15-november-14-2021/?fbclid=IwAR1Tndr_Nxu0sEta1yH5YQrYxnOsAEwz3xkv35KvhQDThPLB202fw4jhReo) in the still life category. One piece, “Peppers Galore” belongs to a Regina collector. The second, Still Life with Rounded Forms, remains with the artist.