She Loved the Bay: The Life & Art of Willi Wildman, a retrospective exhibition of the late local artist, Willi Wildman, ran from April 29 – May 31 and featured dozens of paintings from private collections.
Enjoy the virtual exhibit on this page! In addition, Bay Watch produced a video tour of the show! You can view the video here.
Born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1942, Willi arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba with her family at the age of ten.
Willi studied visual arts at the University of Ottawa. She went on to become a prolific landscape painter of note, especially in the latter part of her creative career, when she lived in Southern Georgian Bay from the early 1980s onward until the end of her life. Willi was endlessly awed, inspired and transported by Georgian Bay’s dramatic and constantly changing waters and skies, the wondrous contrasts of the four seasons and the spectacular vistas of Mother Nature’s beautiful geographic tableaux in the region. You can see all of this in her paintings.
But it was during the 1970s, while resident in Belize, that Willi’s passion for painting first gained momentum and focus. There she was captivated by the Mayan ruins and the magnificent flora and fauna of the land. Willi was also fascinated by the lifestyle of the Belizean fishermen, and the beauty of their boats and catch. These became the subjects of many of her paintings that were hung in the Don Quixote Hotel in Consejo. Willi’s talent earned her a commission to create a 33-foot historical mural near the border of Mexico; the Premier of Belize unveiled it.
Art supplies were not readily available in Belize at that time. Ever resourceful and undaunted, Willi would create some of the pigments she needed for her paintings using tea, boiled onion skins and wild ginger.
Willi was the first recipient of the Robert Kemp Award, and winner of numerous juried show prizes. She was also nominated by the Blue Mountain Foundation for the Arts for the Joan Chalmers Award for artistic excellence and for making a substantial contribution to the artistic ambitions of the community. Willi was acknowledged and celebrated as a hard-working volunteer, assisting many of the arts groups and associations in the region during their formative years.
Willi was also a popular art instructor who enthusiastically imparted not only her deep knowledge, skills and techniques, but also her conviction that the act of painting promotes good mental health, healing and happiness.
Georgian Bay
Loaned by Mia Klein
Loaned by Mia Klein
Beaver River in Thornbury, 2015
Loaned by Mia Klein