Biographies > Sheila Langlois

As an artist, Sheila Langlois was foremost a watercolourist. TAG counts two of these among the collection, Dark as a Dungeon, and Summer Greens. Not only is her work well known all over Ontario, she has influenced many other artists in northern Ontario to work in the medium. Several artists represented in TAG’s collections directly attribute their training to her. Sheila was born in 1930 in Kirkland Lake and lived there her entire life. In 1949, she attended one year at the Ontario College of Art before leaving to marry and raise her family, and thirty years later she returned to the OCA for another year to improve her knowledge. But throughout her adult life Sheila never gave up painting. She was an active member of the Kirkland Lake Art Club and the Northern Ontario Art Association. She attended as many art courses in the region as she could, and was a mainstay at the Cobalt Artists’ Colony. Other attendees have many happy memories of Sheila at those summer events.

Lydia Alexander in describing Sheila’s work says, “Sheila’s paintings show a recognizable and distinct personal style. A ‘Langlois’ shouts at you across the room. Even so it is subtle harmonic interplay of line, form and colour, conveying passion and strength, humour and joy and yes, tears.” Other artist, Cathy Cribbs remembers her humour, funny stories, and bubbly nature. In 1989 Sheila, herself, said, “I love to paint and I have no idea why. I just do it. There is something immensely satisfying about breaking that clean white surface of paper with marks and lines of my own making”.1

1. For further details see D. Green, A Portrait. 50 years in the making, A History of the Northern Ontario Art Association, 2009