Art school marks golden anniversary
Renate Heidersdorf’s art school has inspired students to be creative, focused
Renate Heidersdorf is an artist, an art teacher and a captivating storyteller. She and husband Erik Graf run La Palette Art School and Gallery in Beaconsfield. The school celebrates its 50th anniversary with a reunion and open house, June 17-18.
During a recent tour of the sprawling oasis the couple have created smack dab in the centre of the city’s commercial strip, Heidersdorf shared 50 years of memories with a reporter. There was laughter and a few tears.
“I have taught thousands of students,” Heidersdorf said. “In many cases I’m now teaching the second generation.”
The school offers classes for children and adults in a long list of techniques from sketching and acrylics to silk painting and sculpture.
Heidersdorf is a self-described strict but loving teacher. She doesn’t allow mobile devices in the classroom, and if a student is caught texting, the device is placed in a basket until the end of class.
“If you can’t stop texting for two hours, you’ve got a problem,” she said.
The Heidersdorf family arrived in Beaconsfield from Germany in 1953. Already an established artist, her father, Ernest Heidersdorf, grew to become one of Canada’s foremost floral artists. In 1966, he was commissioned to paint Canada’s Centennial Rose for Queen Elizabeth II.
Over the decades, the family home at 480 Beaconsfield Blvd. has transformed. An addition now connects the house to a once drafty garage, which has been divided into three art studios over two floors. A back fence divides the studio-gallery from the couple’s home and its luscious garden with meandering water features and a natural-water swimming pond. The garden was one of three Canadian gardens selected to be featured on a HGTV show. The couple share the home with two dogs and three cats and a couple of geese who return to the natural swimming pond year after year.
The front and back gardens are frequented by Heidersdorf and her students during class time.
“Many people paint from photos or images on the Internet, but I am an artist who paints in nature,” Heidersdorf said. “I have such respect for nature and I try to pass that on to my students.”
Heidersdorf ’s landscapes appear in private and public collections around the world, but it is teaching that gives her the most satisfaction.
“I find the work I have done with the school has more of an impact that any one of my paintings could have,” Heidersdorf said. “So many teens come to me with low self-esteem — so messed up — and when they walk out of here they feel better. I can do that.”
Tears welled as Heidersdorf walked through the main-floor studio last week and pointed to items she had received from former students who had gone on to forge creative careers.
There was a framed letter of thanks from a student who wrote about how she had learned to believe in herself while taking classes at La Palette. She was recently hired by lauded American production company DreamWorks. And there was a poster from the Pixar film The Incredibles signed by former student Neil Blevins, who is now a digital artist for the worldfamous studio.
“He took classes here from the time he was five years old,” Heidersdorf said.
Students who went on to forge careers outside of the art world tell Heidersdorf they continue to apply the focus and precision learned in the art studio to their chosen field. One student became a plastic surgeon specializing in reconstructive surgery.
“He was always drawing faces and you could see the incredible detail in the bone structure,” Heidersdorf said.
Tapping into a child’s creativity is a thrill for Heidersdorf.
“Imagine a child learning to do what (he or she) is meant to do,” said the 73-year-old. “What could be better than that?”
As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, a retrospective of Heidersdorf ’s work is on display in the gallery until June 30. Although she is primarily known as a landscape artist — watercolours being her preferred technique — the art on display demonstrates her skill in the many other techniques she teaches.
Also on display are distinctive landscapes using a technique she developed called “Renate’s crackle effect.” The distinctive landscapes are a source of curiosity to other artists. She has never shared the formula. A notary will guard it until her death.
What of retirement? “What is retirement?” she said. “I’m doing what I want to do.”
For more information about La Palette Art School and Gallery and the open house June 17-18, call 514-695-0192 or visit www.lapaletteartsschoolandgallery.com.