Back row: Gail Root, Carol Hughes, Leslie Miles, Gail Brown, M. Anne Smith Front: Judy French, Kim Johnston, Dianne Kennedy Cruttenden Absent: Nancy Farrell.
Octarine Women Artists’ Collective (OWAC), founded in 2013, is a group of women who work in various media and exhibit together annually.
Current members are Gail Brown (pastel), Nancy Farrell (acrylics), Judy French (oil), Carol Hughes (watercolour), Kim Johnston (watermedia and oils), Dianne Kennedy Cruttenden (woven tapestry), Gail Root (oils and chalk pastel), Leslie Miles (pastel), and M. Anne Smith (textile and fibre art).
Their upcoming exhibition, “Escape: Transcending Bounds” takes place from April 3 – May 11, 2025 at the Elora Centre for the Arts, Elora, Ontario. This will be the ninth annual exhibition of new work by the group, after a break during the Covid pandemic. Previous shows took place in Fergus, Guelph, Oakville, and Kitchener.
Meeting to discuss our 2023 show.
The name Octarine is taken from the colour imagined to be the eighth colour in the spectrum, the “pigment of the imagination”, which appears when magic is present. The concept comes from the books of the late fantasy author Terry Pratchett.
Past members who exhibited in previous shows are Deborah Dryden (encaustic), Helen Hughes (textile art), Mary Karavos (paper collage), Jean Loney (glass mosaics), and Susan Strachan Johnson (mixed media fibre).
Octarines making plans in 2021. Left to right: Dianne Kennedy Cruttenden, Jean Loney, Gail Root, Judy French, Anne Smith, Kim Johnston, Heather Wood. Photo: Carol Hughes.
Group photo at “Octarine: The Colour of Magic”, 2019. Back row, l to r: Anne Smith, Leslie Miles, Judy French. Front: Carol Hughes, Gail Root, Susan Strachan Johnson, Kim Johnston. Absent: Jean Loney. Photo: County of Wellington.
