Lena Montecalvo is a self-taught watercolour artist who began painting shortly after her artist mother’s death in 2013. Diving in headfirst and now hundreds of paintings later, Lena is an instructor both privately and with Dundas Valley School of Art. She sells her own unique line of original works, prints and greeting cards, using vibrant hues in untraditional ways, and believes in colouring outside the lines while breaking all the rules. She truly believes art is for everyone and that we only need the right instruction, motivation, and environment to begin accessing our own creative spirit.

Her love relationship with Canada’s breathtaking landscape often makes its way into her art and her abstract-feeling forms, colour choices and designs relate our prairies, mountains, lush forests and crystal-like waters to the viewer in a way that allows one to feel its true majesty.

“Producing art for me is like an electric charge that reconnects me to my intuition while somehow grounding me. The act of choosing colours, applying paint in a myriad of ways for different effects and the surprises that come from my untrained brain often result in an adrenaline rush that makes me more present than anything I’ve ever done. I like to break the rules, and I love that I don’t know very many of them because there’s no expert looking over my shoulder telling me what is and isn’t acceptable for watercolour. I’m sure this is how I stumbled upon my unique style and what allows me to teach so effectively to people who’ve always been afraid to be creative. I take pride in helping others understand that they have as much a right to creative joy as anyone else, not just the ‘gifted.’”