Jeffrey John Willmore (b. December 23, 1954,
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario,) is a Canadian artist based in
London, OntarioLondon is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, whose work combines painting, performance and
storytellingStorytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
. His paintings are held in the collections of The University of Western Ontario,
Museum LondonMuseum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. Its collection includes more than 5,000 regional and Canadian works and over 25,000 artifacts that reflect the history of the City of London as an important urban centre in Southwestern Ontario.The museum itself is...
, and the Canada Council Art Bank, (
OttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
}.
Early life
After living in a number of small towns in Northern Ontario, Willmore's family settled in
Sarnia, OntarioSarnia is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada . It is the largest city on Lake Huron and is located where the upper Great Lakes empty into the St. Clair River....
. Willmore later moved to London, Ontario, to study art. He enrolled on a design course at
Fanshawe CollegeFanshawe College is one of the largest colleges in Ontario, Canada. The main campus is in London, Ontario, with additional campuses in Simcoe, St. Thomas, Woodstock, and Tillsonburg. There are about 15,000 full-time students and 40,000 part-time students. Fanshawe College has more than 112,000 alumni...
in the early 1970s, but didn't complete his studies, leaving to work in construction trades; he later returned to Fanshawe and completed a
Fine ArtFine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
diploma program in 1980.
Work
After graduating from Fanshawe, Willmore produced neo-expressionist painting, drawing and
collageA collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
. He exhibited at Museum London, Nancy Poole’s gallery in Toronto, and at the London Forest City Gallery including its annual performance art festival.
In the early 1990s, he created a series of painted landscape and portrait works, and in 1994 an exhibition,
A Forest the Size of France, combined painted, three-dimensional and performance aspects based on childhood memories of Northern Ontario.
His current part-
figurativeFigurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...
paintings adapt sketches of Southern and Northern Ontario, and Canada’s east coast. In 2007, Wilmore's exhibition
Organizing the Search for Tom Thomson was held at London’s McIntosh Gallery.
External links