Email lestall@cogeco.ca

artwork by lyn estall

Free Spirit

Most artists are passionate about their medium or their subject matter.  What captures Lyn Estall's interest most seems to be the process.

Estall, a decidedly free spirit, has many talents; interior design, painter, environmentalist and philanthropist.  Her constant exploration of techniques, and new skills gives her work depth and diversity, working in a variety of disciplines from photo-realism paintings to welding torches and manipulating cauldrons of hot wax.

Estall lives in Oakville with husband Dr. Tom Estall, and their two cats, Maya and T.C. (The Cat).

The artist has raised two children:  Jordan, 27, and Jennifer, 23.  After modeling and acting post university, Estall definitely feels fortunate to carry out her life's passion.

"Usually it takes a good part of your lifetime to find what you love doing," she says.  "I've been really lucky because I found it early."  Estall always knew she wanted to be an artist and has been drawing since she was a small child.

She was accepted to the Ontario College of Art at 17, but instead finished high school under the order of her parents.  She then went to McMaster University to study psychology and art history and later began art classes when her kids were young.

When they started school, Estall suddenly had more time on her hands.

"I don't think I ever considered art something I could make a career at, probably because it's something ingrained in us when we're young," she says. 

To prove the theory wrong, Estall has had a career as an accomplished artist for almost 25 years.

After studying Interior Design at Sheridan College, she and a friend started Estall and MacKenzie Associates 12 years ago, carving their niche in the industry by specializing in painting murals, trompe l'oeil, customized furniture and faux finishes.

Their first mural, for a Filter Queen vacuum store, depicted a lady leaning out of a window sucking up a cat with a vacuum cleaner.  That poor unsuspecting feline had led her to what has been a longstanding contract painting an annual cat calendar.

Since 1995, Estall has worked for Pine Ridge Art Inc., a Canadian company, producing her annual T.C. and Friends cat calendar - the inaugural calendar featured 12 paintings of Estall's own furry friend, T.C.

Pine Ridge has since expanded her line to include items like Christmas Cards, greeting cards, notepads and stationary.  "I have done over 100 paintings of cats, and still find them interesting," she writes in her artist's statement.

In 1997, Estall was asked to join a team of four artists to paint three immense murals to be used in promoting the movie "Jurassic Park: The Lost World.

The murals were exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and travelled across the United States.  Estall has completed many other murals, including two rooms at Toronto's Ronald McDonald House and in Oakville at the Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital's emergency waiting room.

her fresh ideas and means of expression drive her ongoing quest to experiment with diverse techniques and media. 

She paints in oils, acrylics, watercolour and pastels and also pursues collage, sculpting, working with metal and acid encaustics (using melted beeswax and paint) and more recently, collography and mono printing.

She paints in her home studio but takes larger and messier projects to Steve Hudak's Industrial Artspace in Oakville.  Together, Estall and Hudak share a side business supplying clay candleholders to T's Candle kiosks throughout Ontario.

Several themes often persist in Estall's work, whichever medium she chooses to work in.

One is cats.  Once all her cat calendar paintings are completed she pours her creative energy into other work. "With the other pieces, there's no worry about whether it will sell or not.  It's what interests me and what I need to do," she explains.

The second theme is time - Kairos and Chronos.  Chronos is man's time - what keeps us on a set schedule.  Kairos is God's time; being involved in the moment when time stands still.

"If I'm painting, I can almost feel the flip between the two," she observes.  "There is a definite distinction between working because you have to and working because you want to."

Several of her gallery shows have dealt with this theme.

The third theme is Wabi Sabi - appreciating teh beauty of things in their natural, deteriorating state.

"I often incorporate beautiful bits of rusting metal into my paintings, stones, old keys, anything else I find interesting," she writes in her artist's statement.

Is there always a message behind her medium?

"Some of my conceptual and environmental art does have a message, but it's OK if the audience might not see it," says Estall.

"With the cat paintings I like them to have a story.  But for any piece of art, you should be able to get out of it whatever you see as an individual."

Estall donates her time and work to several causes; being on the special events committee for Oakville United Way and donating work to raise funds for the Halton Rape Crisis Centre, Halton Women's Centre and several local churches and schools.

She is also involved with the Broken Fence Society and the Bronte Historical Society.

The Broken Fence Society is comprised of a group of artists supporting environmental causes and has a permanent gallery on Queen Street in Toronto.  She won first place in their juried show this year.

Fittingly, many elements in Estall's work are recycled, given to her from friends or found items.  Pieces from a friend's shattered 100 year old grand piano appear in a painting that hangs above Estall's mantle, illustrating the transition between chronos and kairos.

She once received a crumpled piece of copper as a belated birthday present and used it in a piece that sold recently.  Old cupboard doors have served as a modern way to mount her paintings.

Estall functions on the executive of the Bronte Historical Society, where she coordinates in teh Art in teh Bluffs series and special events at the historic Sovereign House.

"I love it there," she states.  "There is beautiful art always hanging inside and wonderful grounds to walk on.  I like to go in there and have a cup of tea, write in my journal.  It's my cottage."

Whether it's working in her studio at all hours or donating work or time, Estall does something connected to art every day.

If you do that for 25 years, then eventually without even meaning to, it takes you to a direction through life - some years it has taken a different focus, depending on where I've been," she observes. "Art is endless.  you can never get bored at it because there are so many things to explore.

With a desire to always learn something new and explore new techniques and ideas, she keeps her spirit, and her art, fresh.

"I think it's a willingness to always be a beginner," she advises.  "Just leap in and do it.  Know that the very first time you paint, it's not going to look 'right.'  If you have no limits on what you're willing to try, then everything becomes a possibility for your creativity."