BLENDING EXPERIENCES
Colour theory, art history, and finding your own style- it’s taught in school but how do you apply these lessons to your real life arts practice? With the help of mentor Marilyn, Eve was able to explore and find her place in the art world.
Read on for more about Eve’s experiences with her mentor Marilyn Schick in Creative Manitoba’s Rural Mentorship Program!
Evangeline Simard
Evangeline (Eve) Simard (she/her) graduated from high school in 2025, beginning her artistic journey through art classes in school. She enjoys making art and sees art as more than just a pretty picture. She likes to see how an artist’s work changes over a lifetime and is interested in how those changes come out.
To Eve, art speaks better than any other type of communication. Eve began Fine Arts studies at Brandon University in September 2025 with an interest in pursuing art therapy and a practice dedicated to healing through creativity.
Marilyn Schick
Marilyn Schick (she/her) loves a good story. For her, the best story is the history of art making. She sees it as the story of humanity craving to create and give meaning to constant change and to do that well. Through that lens, she encourages mentees to become acquainted with the ideas of past art makers and to test their expressive strategies- calling this a hands-on art history approach. These projects lead to expressive skill and localized interpretation of the social and environmental context of proven artists.
Marilyn’s hope is to foster enduring creators to continue what she sees as, ‘the best story’.
Mentor Marilyn Shick (left) and mentee Eve Simard (right).
How long have you been a practicing artist?
I’ve just graduated from high school this year and so my artwork has been mostly for art classes in school and at our art centre. So it has been for about four years that I have been practicing art.
- Eve
I’ve been involved in visual creativity for most of my life. Recently, I created a story colouring book for our museum. In 2021, my husband and I showed a photo collection called “Water Run”, featuring wildlife that we spotted while hauling household water from our community well.
I’ve taken several university art classes but my favourite studies were in art therapy. These led to developing and delivering art programs for community organizations and schools.
- Marilyn
Eve’s re-creation of “The Green Stripe” by Henri Matisse while practising mixing colour
What have you been working on together?
Marilyn had explained that she likes to begin teaching by developing colour mixing skills (using paint) and that she uses famous artist work to learn expressive strategies. We started by looking at a copy of Picasso’s strategies in expressing his reaction to the devastating bombing of a Spanish community in the 1930’s. One of his strategies was to to paint in black and white and so that’s where my work started. She asked me to make a colour strip chart using only black and white paint to develop a grey scale control. After this, I gridded a 56 cm by 71 cm detail from Guernica and carefully reproduced the shading Picasso had used.
My next project was to depict a change that had happened in my own life while using the expressive strategies in Guernica; line, shape, colour contrast, symbol and texture.
- Eve
Eve and I have been looking at and talking about historic artwork, exploring the changing concerns of artists over time. We’ve included local artists like Donald Proche and Joe Fafard. Simultaneously, Eve has been gaining skill in mixing paint and using colour as a strategy to express her own response to changes.
We planned day trips to get further acquainted with the art world and to help her find a role in it.
- Marilyn
“For me art speaks better than any other type of communication.”
- Eve, on her artistic goals and practice
What aspect of your work brings you joy?
So far in this mentorship I’m kind of surprised because when we started I actually despised painting. But I wanted to broaden my skill base so I tried practising painting more and now i actually enjoy doing it! I’ve completed a colour mixing project which is to create colour charts using only 6 colours, warm and cool red, warm and cool blue, and warm and cool yellow. Marilyn explained that this exercise is meant to develop intuitive ability and control for expressing mood through colour. Next, referring to the colour guides I created, I’m reproducing a colour portrait of a Les Fauves painting called the Green Stripe. When it’s done, I’ll create my own composition using colour to describe my emotional relationship to a subject of my choice.
- Eve
I feel really happy when I see people developing expressive strategies. When, for instance; one adult participant exclaimed, “As I was doing that art exercise I could feel my brain changing!”; a senior reported at a drop-in centre “All last week, wherever I was driving, I was seeing foreground, middle ground and distance”; an after school art club member exclaimed “ I didn’t know I could do this!”; a young girl assured her grandma, “It’s okay if you don’t have a purple colour, I know how to make it”; an appreciative participant in a personal care home observed while reflecting on the very simple but pleasing panel of colours that she’d just mixed and painted, “It’s a tapestry!”
- Marilyn
What have been your most positive takeaways from this mentorship session? Any favourite results or moments?
I’m learning a lot and I’m loving it. I feel confident that I’ll have a good portfolio when the mentorship is over. Marilyn has her own art library that features many artists and as we page through these books I’m learning about artist’s lives, along with a wide range of expressive styles and interests. I’m also learning about the range of careers in the art world and I’d never dreamed there were places like vaults, where art was collected and stored. We’re planning on touring more and have arranged to meet a textile artist in her studio. We plan on a gallery tour as well.
- Eve
Exchanges with Eve are a growth experience for both of us. We share a common passion for art so talking about it and how it affects us is like talking with a colleague. Eve’s thinking style is open and agile. She readily expresses her perceptions so that we can share, compare and gain insight from each other. Eve reports that before our mentorship she didn’t like painting but now she loves it. This is evidence that she’s committed to trying and learning from what she’d earlier preferred to avoid. She also takes leadership and responsibility on her own behalf and for others. I’m thrilled to be working together with this very creative person.
- Marilyn
READY TO TAKE YOUR ARTS CAREER TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
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