Still Life Painting: Ceremonial Lion Head

Join us on Friday Feb 27 for an exciting after-hours Lion Head still-life painting session at Gwartzman's Art Supplies. Running from 6:30–8:30 PM, this session includes a two-hour sit with a traditional Chinese lion head (named Elmo!), all the materials you need, and optional guided instruction. You'll be leaving this session with your very own acrylic painting, fun memories and new friends!

Rooted in traditions dating back over a thousand years, Chinese lion dance developed as a communal ritual to bring good fortune, ward off evil spirits, and mark moments of celebration and renewal. Each lion carries its own character and personality, brought to life through movement, rhythm, and craftsmanship—making it a rich and meaningful subject to observe and paint.

This lion head is generously provided by the Chinatown Community Lion Dance Club, which meets every Tuesday from 7–9 PM at Hart House (until the end of February), and Tuesdays from 6:30–9:30 PM at Cecil starting in March. For more information, email [email protected].

Materials:

Canvas

Brushes

Palette knives

Gwartzman's Acrylic Paints

Table Easels

*We ask that each participant bring an item that is meaningful to them. This item can align with the theme for year of the horse/lunar new year/renewal/strength/red, etc., but theme is not mandatory.

**Aprons not provided

Your Instructor:

Anson Ng is a Toronto-based artist whose practice explores how the spaces we share shape our history, memory, and cultural identity. His upbringing in a family-run restaurant continues to inform his interest in migration, labour, and shared experience. He paints small businesses and restaurants on site, in the open on city streets, treating them as sites of cultural significance within the Canadian diaspora, and has painted in cities and provinces across Canada. Alongside this, he paints Canadian natural landscapes in the open, within outdoor and natural settings, placing these works in conversation with one another. Through this dual focus, Ng treats both the landscape of diaspora and the natural landscape as inseparable parts of the greater Canadian landscape, using slow, attentive painting to celebrate, archive, and honour the people, places, and histories that shape us.

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