Artist’s love of painting has inspired thousands

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This article was published 03/09/2021 (1537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One local artist and volunteer has helped thousands of others discover the artist within.

Carol Dillon, who has lived most of her life in Transcona, teaches both private lessons and volunteers her time teaching seniors the techniques she’s learned since she first picked up a paint brush at the age of 11.

“I love painting, and I love teaching it,” said Dillon, who has been volunteering with the Transcona Council for Seniors, teaching oil paining, for years. 

“With seniors, I’m fascinated by how well they learn,” Dillon added. “At 70, 80, 90 years old, they’re learning. It’s a thrill for me because I’ve had some part in it.”

“Carol is an amazing painter,” said Colleen Tackaberry, senior resource co-ordinator with the TCS. “She brings her expertise, but also her joy and her care. She really cares about the people she works with and goes to great lengths to help them improve. She’s very encouraging and good at showing them new techniques.”

“She’s a really good artist,” said Herb Bjarnason, a student at the senior group. “She paints spruce trees and you can almost see every needle on the blinking tree.”

Over the course of her career, Dillon has done commissions for national companies, and had her work shown in galleries across the country. Earlier in her career, she put on annual shows of her students’ work, many of which went on to win awards.

“I’ve probably taught about 1,000 students, all walks of life, all ages,” she said, flipping through photo albums she’s kept of her former students’ work. “The art itself, what I loved about it, was it’s a great equalizer. Everybody was equal in what they were doing. It’s amazing how well they do once they get started.”

After renting space from Fleet Gallery for years, Dillon took a risk and opened a gallery of her own near Confusion Corner in the late 1980s.

“It was right next to a place that sold pot. It was quite an interesting place!” Dillon recalled with a chuckle. “Then I moved from there down Osborne, and had a different gallery there, but then we hit the recession. We went belly up.”

Ever since her older brother Gary taught her those first rudimentary techniques as a child, Dillon has pushed herself as an artist.

“I learn something every time I do a painting,” she said. “You know what I try to do? I try to make a painting so real it looks like you could walk into it. That’s the big challenge for me. I’m always chasing that. It’s a constant challenge to improve.”

Teaching has not only helped others discover their artistic spark, but has also helped Dillon grow as an artist, as well.

“With me teaching, I had to learn to do everything,” she said. “Because if I didn’t know how to do it, I couldn’t teach it. I had to learn to do an elephant once, because a student wanted to paint an elephant. And she sold it, in my gallery. You know what I used as an example? The bark of a tree.”

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While Dillon strives for achieving lifelike detail when painting from photos she has taken — or from original photos of her clients, when painting commissions — she is quick to remind herself, and her students, to have fun with the work.

“You can do anything you want, painting,” she said. “That is something I teach the students. But when I teach that, that they can alter, they don’t feel so frightened of what they’re doing. It gives them freedom.”

The hours she puts in to sharing her knowledge with others is not lost on Tackaberry, or her students at the Transcona Council for Seniors.

“She believes in giving, and maybe from that receives a reward,” Tackaberry said. “She’s just fantastic.”

While COVID-19 has put many of her classes on hold, the TCS is planning to begin meeting again weekly soon. Anyone interested in taking private classes can contact Dillon at 204-668-2976.

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112

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