Darlene Kulig’s paintings are bold and joyous, whimsical and eye-catching. Her work is described as semi-abstracted spirited landscape and each painting is dotted with her signature, effervescent champagne bubbles. Darlene’s artwork focuses on landmarks and landscapes from around the world, each containing her signature style. The paintings featuring her home country, Canada, are reminiscent of a time spent at a lakeside cottage, a hike through an Ontario woodland, the majesty of the mountains in the west, and the beauty of the red sand dunes in the east. They are organic and semi-abstract, but unmistakeable as the Canadian landscape. Her love of the beauty available in the Canadian landscape is clear. What is especially impressive is that she has developed a unique very personal approach that “feels” Canadian.
Revealing the lifeforce of my subjects
The designer in me loves simple shape and bold colour while the painter in me explores light, rhythm, and personal connection.
The Cover Story: An Arts Etobicoke exhibition and Online Auction.
I’m excited to be part of The Cover Story: An Exhibition and Auction of 50 Original Artworks, presented by Arts Etobicoke.
Check out my design – which will be donated with an opportunity to collaborate in my studio in the final stages of creating a painting.
To see this sketchbook along with 49 others, get to Arts Etobicoke’s Storefront Gallery at 4893a Dundas St W, Etobicoke, M9A 1B2 between June 12-24
Bid on your favourites in an online auction from June 12-24.
Visit Arts Etobicoke’s website to learn more and support their mission to provide equitable and inclusive access to the arts and culture in West Toronto.”
2025 Wall Calendars
My new 2025 Calendars from Pomegranate Publishing have arrived!
That’s right! 2025 is is right around the corner. It’s time to plan ahead. Drop by the studio to pick one up and say hello.
Penguin Pilgrimage Holiday Cards
Bright and spotted with champagne bubbles that effervesce from the earth.
Share the excitement and awe of penguins setting out for the journey of a lifetime when you send this holiday card to friends and family.
Spring Open House
I would love for you to pop in for a visit during my Open House on May 17th.
And as always, please bring along a friend.
Where: 19 Birchcroft Road, Etobicoke.
By appointment: 647-409-2478.
Holiday Open House
Stock up on great holiday gift ideas! Choose from puzzles – including my newest Stumpcraft wooden puzzle – Holiday Boxed Cards, 2025 Calendars, Garden Flags and maybe a Letting Go Paddle too! I also have wearable art t-shirts, with all proceeds going to The Craig Kulig Memorial Fund to raise money for cancer research at the Ottawa Hospital.
I am always happy to discuss a commission or facilitating an acrylic workshop party for you and a group of courageous friends or co-workers…..
And please bring along a friend.
Message me if you would like to visit on another day or time.
Acrylic Painting, Landscape – Composition, Creativity and Feeling the Colours of Canada
Sessions: 6 Fridays
Instructor: Darlene Kulig
Level: All Levels
Location: At Centre
Lighten up, loosen up and give in to play. Feel your way through shape and colour and find your acrylic painting groove with Darlene Kulig as your guide. Fun drawing and observation exercises lead into technical exercises to build your skills and strengthen your understanding of colour and value. Painting projects offer a choice of references and the option to learn step-by-step alongside Darlene as she demonstrates technique in her beautifully graphic and colour-soaked style. For a materials list, please check our website.
$226.80 (with HST $256.28)
For materials list, please click here.
Register for this Adult Class: F26AACO
Please read our full registration and cancellation policies before you register.
The Shape of Winter – Painting with Darlene Kulig
Sessions: 1 Friday
Instructor: Darlene Kulig
Level: All Levels
Location: At Centre
Develop your artistic eye and technical painting skills, explore colour in winter landscape and release your playful side with Darlene Kulig as she guides the class through a series of fun exercises and a wintery and wonderful painting. Develop an understanding style, explore colour schemes to great artistic effect, create mood, movement and depth, and portray the Canadian winter as you see it. Discover the many tints and shades of white that winter offers as snow reflects the beauty and colour of surrounding nature and create something truly unique. For a materials list, please check our website.
$72.00 (with HST $81.36)
For materials list, please click here.
Register for this Adult Workshop: F26ASOW
Please read our full registration and cancellation policies before you register.
Art For Goodness’ Sake Charity Art Show with Darlene Kulig
THE ANNUAL
KINGSWAY-LAMBTON CHARITY ART SHOW & SALE
On April 11, 2026, 31 carefully chosen and award-winnng professional artists willl showcase and sell their fine art across a variety of media, with all net proceeds supporting local charities.
Over 500 fine art pieces will attract the attention of about 600 art buyers in an exclusive one-day event.
Come and speak with the artists directly about their work and what inspires them.
In the heart of Toronto’s west end, the Kingsway-Lambton show is a must-see event on Toronto’s arts calendar, and trusted for 28 years for its quality and unique offerings.
Art For Goodness’ Sake Charity Art Show with Darlene Kulig
THE ANNUAL
KINGSWAY-LAMBTON CHARITY ART SHOW & SALE
On April 11, 2026, 31 carefully chosen and award-winnng professional artists willl showcase and sell their fine art across a variety of media, with all net proceeds supporting local charities.
Over 500 fine art pieces will attract the attention of about 600 art buyers in an exclusive one-day event.
Come and speak with the artists directly about their work and what inspires them.
In the heart of Toronto’s west end, the Kingsway-Lambton show is a must-see event on Toronto’s arts calendar, and trusted for 28 years for its quality and unique offerings.
Canadiana in Colour - An Acrylic Painting Series with Darlene Kulig
Acrylic Painting: Canadiana in Colour! (S25ACIC)
This semi-abstracted, spirited landscape painting workshop delivered by Darlene Kulig is sure to resonate with your senses as you embrace vivid colour and the place we call home. Explore the unique shapes and the quality of light that makes Canada feel like Canada! Students learn about the importance of value and look at the basic elements of design and colour. The instructor will reference Canadian painters and their take on our beautiful landscapes and cityscapes as students work from a supplied reference or bring a work they are developing. Darlene is a prolific and collected artist whose works celebrating Canada hang in The Mayo Clinic and in Embassies around the world. For a materials list, please click here.
Colour Vibrations and Waves of “Lifeforce” – Light and the Canadian Landscape An Acrylic Painting Series with Darlene Kulig
Acrylic Painting: Light and the Canadian Landscape! (W26AVBL)
Experience a class with Artist and Instructor Darlene Kulig and feel so much joy and connection with the group while embarking on an exploration of colour, movement, and light. Participants develop acrylic painting skills and strengthen their knowledge of colour mixing and brushstroke through an approachable step-by-step painting process. This session will not only allow students to create works of art that depict the Canadian landscape in glorious and radical colour, it also helps develop an understanding of the process of abstraction as students learn to isolate shape, line and movement into a beautifully graphic form. For a materials list, please check our website.
For materials list, please click here.
Live Art Sessions with Darlene Kulig: Painting the “Letting Go” Paddles
Live Art Sessions: Painting the “Letting Go” Paddles!
Join me for a special live art series this July as I bring my “Letting Go” Meditation Paddles to life! Over the course of four Fridays, I will share my full creative process—from a primed paddle, to a delicate chalk drawing, to bold and joyful layers of paint that embody my signature style.
Each session is a chance to witness my step-by-step technique and hear the inspiring story behind the rising champagne bubble—a meaningful symbol featured on the back of each paddle that represents courage, neutrality, and higher vibration emotions.
Visual Arts Mississauga - Summer Adults Painting Workshop with Darlene Kulig
Acrylic Painting: Jellybean Fun!
Inspired from a trip to St John’s Newfoundland let’s explore the whimsy of my colourful East Coast Houses…. We will look at the early work of Kandinski and the delightful urban landscapes of Hunderwasser to find your own “Jellybean” style.
Materials included.
The Art of Making Joyful Art- Spring Awakens
Arts Etobicoke’s 8-week Studio Series for Seniors at Cloverdale Mall.
I am so thrilled to be partnering with Arts Etobicoke to bring you The Art of Making Joyful Art – Spring Awakens, an 8-week Studio Series for Seniors at Cloverdale Common, Cloverdale Mall. This course is designed with you in mind — a warm, encouraging space to explore drawing, painting, and the pure joy of making art.
When: Thursdays, April 16 to June 11, 2026 (no class May 14) | 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Where: Cloverdale Common, Cloverdale Mall, 250 The East Mall, Toronto, ON M9B 3Y8
Cost: $156 + HST (subsidized rate) | Age 55+
Visual Arts Mississauga - Summer Adults Painting Workshop with Darlene Kulig
Acrylic Painting: PEI Beach Walk!
Beach Walk Pink and Pale Green Sunset was created to honour Darlene’s French Canadian mother Jacqueline Kulig. The location is the North Shore of PEI, about 20 minutes from Cavendish in Sea View. Students are welcome to bring in their own reference or they can work from Darlene’s supplied reference. Students will explore elements of landscape painting including earth, sea and wide open skies!
Materials included.
Adult Workshop
W24AFRE Painting: From Reference to Essence
This class focuses on person and painter. Ideas of letting go, radical acceptance and a teaching process of breaking things down into beginner steps makes it ideal for those who are looking to develop their skills.
Students learn how to look at a subject, understand spatial relationships and individual interpretations. Supplied references and exercises in technique will refresh skills while design element and colour theory are introduced to strengthen thumbnail sketches and colour mixing with acrylics.
Each week, class will start with a short lecture followed by supported active studio time.
Fall Adult Workshops
S23APRE Painting: Landscape Process
This course led by Darlene Kulig explores design elements and colour theory to build the artist’s tool box and offers insights to open the heart of an artist to discover their “essence”.
Students will work with drawing tools, thumbnail sketches and acrylic paints. Participants will reconnect with the divergent thinking of a child. Finding the courage to be in the moment and make personal art is a liberating and life changing thing!
Each week, class will start with a short lecture to better understand design and colour. The instructor will bring personal works to better communicate her something step by step process.
Each student will have open studio time to work on a painting of their choice.
References will be available for student inspiration if they are not ready to start something original. Students are welcome to bring their own reference or paint in the style of the instructor
Virtual Gallery
Find my art in one of the isles of the Art Gallery of Hamilton!
Contest
WIN the proof prints of my 2023 Wall Calendar by entering on Instagram.
Collections
“It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw.” – Emily Carr
The majestic mountains of Canada’s west coast are an artist’s dream. From the awe-inspiring snow caps of the Rocky Mountains to the icy clear turquoise lakes in beautiful Banff National Park, this scenery is a joy to paint. I have been fortunate to have spent time amongst these rugged soaring peaks painting my interpretation, or what I call Spirited Landscapes, of the astonishing beauty that is Canada’s Rocky Mountains.
I spent some time on Prince Edward Island, and its beauty and charm definitely had an effect on me. I was drawn to the wind-sculpted dunes along the coastal bays, the loveliness of the sunset skies, and the allure of the red soil and sand. The farmhouses dotted across the countryside were the perfect subjects to paint.
My style of painting, along with the way I see and use colour, pair perfectly with the gold and jewel-like hues of autumn. I love trying to capture the prism of colour produced by the changing of the leaves in our Ontario woodlands and lakes.
Winter is my favourite season to paint. Living in Canada, I get to paint a lot of it! I love painting the way the snow blankets the ground like its own thick layer of paint, and how it hangs in perfectly-sculpted mounds amongst the trees. Moonlight reflecting off snow and creating night light is a magical experience.
I love Newfoundland and Labrador and I was lucky to spend time in this beautiful province painting and studying the landscape. In this series of paintings, I tried to capture the joyous spirit of the folk who live there and their deep connection to the land.
I am drawn to the architectural charm of old buildings and homes in small towns. It could be a country lane in Scotland, a little pub row in England, an alleyway in Elora, or a view from the bridge in Dorset. I love to try and capture the essence of place and time in these magical places.
Tondo short for rotundo is simply a round painting. Circles are among the oldest of geometric symbols, and commonly represent unity, wholeness, and infinity. Pythagoras called the circle “monad,” the most perfect of creative forms, without beginning or end, without sides or corners.
Night skies and Northern Lights have always held a fascination for me. The vastness, and beauty, and endless possibilities of all that they represent is present in most of my work. There are endless colours to be found in the sky.
I travelled to Vienna in 2013. My puzzles with Pomegranate Publishing, Gustav’s Cat and Outside Vienna, were inspired by works created during this trip.
I am lucky to have travelled both here in Canada and abroad, and I’m always exploring through an artist’s lens. Here, my spirited landscapes meet the European countryside. New vistas and views – same big, beautiful sky.
Canoes on small lakes, tugboats heading inland to oceanside towns, or sailboats out for a leisure tour, I can’t resist the siren call to paint boats on the water.
Wide open skies, hay bales at rest in golden fields, and gumweed dancing along the roadsides. Meadows dotted with wildflowers. This the Canadian Prairies.
This Paddle allows you to go on a journey. When you feel the need to just “be” turn your paddle inward and focus on the energy of the ascending champagne bubble…
Year-round views from breathtaking vistas, snowy mountain peaks, and gorgeous lakes and slopes. It’s like painting from the top of the world.
Did you know that stacking small artwork vertically can lengthen the height of a wall? Or a small piece can display beautifully almost anywhere. Tuck it into an alcove for a surprising dash of colour or nestle it amongst your books on a shelf or side table.
I have been visiting Barbados for over 30 years. I love painting the palms and sandy beaches, the breezy homes and buildings, and the beautiful people who call this small island paradise ‘home’.
Original Commissioned Paintings
Capture the spirit of your special place to bring joy and colour to your every day space.
Craig Kulig Memorial Foundation
Darlene's nephew, Craig Kulig, passed away in 2016 at the age of 23 after a brave battle with cancer. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she teamed up with Bring Your Own Mask (BYOM) to feature her artwork on a series of face masks in support of the Foundation Craig's father, Bruce established in his name.
Puzzles & More
Pop into the shop to pick up a puzzle or a pillowcase! You'll also find calendars, note cards and face masks, all featuring Darlene's bold and colourful art!
Studio Tours
Individual and small groups are welcome by appointment. Come by to see some of Darlene's new work and talk about all things art. Colour Close Up!
Darlene Kulig
Char
Ron
Ava
Lindy
Steve
Media & Press
The Art of Making Joyful Art – Spring Awakens
Explore drawing, painting, and the joy of making art in this warm and supportive 8-week studio series for seniors with celebrated Canadian artist Darlene Kulig.
Art For Goodness’ Sake Charity Art Show
This is a great opportunity to meet some talented artists and support your community.
Colour, Lifeforce and Achieving Balance in Semi Abstracted Spirited Landscape
Darlene shares her step-by-step process to making joyful art while supporting painters of all levels in their journey for finding balance and peace in mind, heart and hand.
Capture the spirit of your special place to bring joy and colour to your every day space.
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