Lillian Loponen: Window Demonstration

Lillian Loponen will be demonstrating in the Yukon Artists @ Work window July 15-17, 11-2 pm. You can also register for a Zoom artist talk with her, Thursday July 16 at 6:30 pm. Drop by YA@W, call 393 4848, or email yaaw@artlover.com to register.

You can see her work featured in the window throughout the week. Watch for two nonmember artists the last two weeks of July – Dennis Shorty will join us from Ross River the week of July 21, and Amber Church the last week of July. The Artists in the Window series continues until September 4.

Art practices are often much more varied than most people know. Lillian Loponen, well known for her wintry landscapes in watercolour and acrylic, has also had an active practice in digital media for about 20 years now.

Back in 1998 she took her first weekend Photoshop workshop in Mayo. Four years later she started with Computer Graphic  credit course at Yukon college in Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Indesign and a ten day workshop in Illustrator. 

A small inheritance helped her invest in the tools to apply the knowledge to support her art career, creating prints and cards of her paintings. Accurate colour reproduction is an art in itself.

Loponen used these skills in many ways over the years, designing posters for the Yukon Artists @Work Gallery, and as part of her work at the Yukon Commissioner’s office.

For her time in the window, she will be working on a course in portraiture, using an application called Procreate. She has registered for a class, creating 30 portraits in 30 days, with guidance from an instructor. “I wanted to give the public something different.”

Her 30 days began at the beginning of July. One window will be filled with existing portraits, while Lillian works on her iPad in the window beside them.

She is excited to spend some time with faces, as it’s been years since she’s worked in portraiture.

Loponen hopes to incorporate more people in her landscapes. Her landscape style uses bold, gestural strokes. She hopes this time spend with detailed portraits will provide the skill and knowledge of structure for her to evoke a human presence in that deft way when she returns to the brush.

In other news, Lopenen is working with the Studio Gallery Association, a group of seven artists, on work for an exhibition at the Yukon Arts Centre in March 2021 based on Alice in Wonderland, called Dark Alice. “It’s got all of us thinking outside the box,” she says.