Board of Directors

Meet our Board of Directors for 2024-2025

The Society of Canadian Artists board of directors is made up from 12 volunteer members from across Canada. Our Executive team consists of the President, Vice President, Exhibitions Director & Treasurer. Directors also chair various committees or are representatives for the geographical area in which they reside.

We are always looking for volunteers to fill various roles. If you are interested in being part of the board, please contact Manny Schulz, president@societyofcanadianartists.com

Executive officers

Manny Schulz SCA President & Director

Born in Winnipeg, Manny graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture in 1981 and afterwards worked as a freelance artist. In 1985, Manny took a pause from his artwork to pursue his business career and obtained an MBA and an accounting designation. In 2016, following a 31-year hiatus from painting, Manny returned to his artwork and has exhibited his acrylic paintings in numerous galleries and juried competitions. Since 2020, Manny has had five paintings juried into Open International Juried Exhibitions curated by the SCA and in April 2021 was elected to the SCA.

Nancy Overbury SCA Vice President & Exhibitions Chair

Nancy uses heavy buttery layers of impasto and thin translucent glazes of paint applied with spatulas and found objects to emulate depth and to capture movement and feeling. She lives in Montreal, Quebec, where she studied Fine Arts but considers her most valuable art lessons were learned while studying in Nîmes, France. There she discovered how the quality of light and sky influence mood and motion. Her sources of inspiration lie in the natural landscape of Southern Quebec and the Laurentian Mountains.

Andrea Howson SCA Treasurer and Director

Andrea is an acrylic artist living and working in Belwood, Ontario. She completed a Fine Arts program with Honours from Sheridan College and is completing a graphic design program at OCAD University. Although she is diverse in her subject matter, her current focus is on farm life. Her style of artwork is naturally fluid, dynamic, and often intensely colourful. Her paintings show movement, rhythm, and energy, and above all, bring her imagination to life on the canvas.

Committee chairs

Rick Cullis SCA Membership Chair & Director

Born and raised in the Hamilton Burlington area, as well as the Sudbury area, Rick taught for 30 years for the Halton Board of Education in both elementary and secondary schools with 20 of those years teaching Art to grades 2 to 13, as well as photography and computer graphics at the secondary level. Since 1980 he has worked through a variety of media including pencil, ink, water colour and a long period of working in acrylics. In 2017 the switch was made to oils. There is an enormous amount of technical learning to be had in oil painting, in order to accomplish durable and well executed paintings, and this is his current focus.

Eva Christensen Secretary & Director

Mary Gartlan Human Resources & Director

Born in Montreal, Quebec, to Hungarian Immigrants, she was influenced early on by European culture, and her Godmother, a French Canadian Artist. She first began teaching Sketching and Watercolor, in Ajax, Ontario, with The Durham Board of Education from 1980 to 1989. Mary became involved with The Oshawa Art Association, first as Secretary, thereafter, holding a variety of positions throughout the years, (Juried Show Chair, Special Events Person, President, 2nd Vice President, Past President), and recently recognized with a Lifetime Membership. She is currently an Associate Member of the Society of Canadian Artists and the Pastel Artists of Canada. Various works of her art can be found in private collections across Canada, United States, Australia and Europe.

VACANT Member Services & Director

Manny Schulz SCA Social Media Chair

Sarah Marie Lacy SCA Website/ IT (On temporary leave of absence from board as of Oct 5)

VACANT New Member Liaison & Director

VACANT Conference Chair & Director

Eugene Jankowski SCA Quebec Representative

Eugene holds a degree in Psychoeducation from the University of Montreal. Since a very young age, he has been involved in the arts, first as a painter and then, for the last thirty five years, as a stone sculptor. He has shown his works internationally as well as nationally. He is the founding President of the Association for Stone Sculptors (ASPM), and is also member of the Conseil de la Sculpture du Quebec.

VACANT Ontario Representative

Sharon Fox Cranston SCA Atlantic Representative

Sharon Fox Cranston is a visual artist based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She is multidisciplined and works in oil, acrylic and pastel. A Signature member of the Society of Canadian Artists, the Pastel Society of America, and a designated Master Pastelist of Pastel Artists Canada, Sharon has been creating fine art professionally for over 20 years. Her impressionistic style actively challenges the viewer to interpret the work for themselves. Sharon’s focus is on the texture, colour and rhythms of the rural landscape. “Creating art brings me joy, it gives my visual perception of the world a voice. I enjoy challenging myself to grow, to experiment, to explore new ways of looking at the world. Each one of my paintings is a visual record of where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, and how I’ve tried to express that moment to others.”

Elisabeth Sommerville SCA Western Representative

Elisabeth Sommerville graduated from the Alberta College of Art in Calgary winning the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize. She moved to Vancouver in 1965 to start her own award-winning graphic design business, Sommergraphics. In 1985 she was hired as design consultant by British Airways in London, working with U.S.-based Landor Associates in developing a new corporate design. On her return to Vancouver, she enrolled at the University of British Columbia for a Studio Art Degree while continuing to freelance. Courses in etching, serigraphy and plate lithography led her to a new stage in her career when she joined Malaspina Printmakers Society on Granville Island to learn the art of stone lithography. Over the next 20 years, she became well known for her detailed, precise and beautiful limited edition prints of wildlife. Her skill and artistry continued with egg tempera paintings and then with coloured pencils, a medium particularly suited to her meticulous drawings. Elisabeth attained SFCA Signature Status with the Federation of Canadian Artists and became an Elected Member of the Society of Canadian Artists in 2020. She was recently promoted from Associate Member to AFC Signature Membership with the world-wide Artists for Conservation. Her work is in collections in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and the U.S.A.

Marissa Sweet Past President

Marissa's art is more than just brush strokes on canvas; it represents a profound message of reconnecting with nature and finding solace in its embrace. Through her paintings, she endeavors to evoke nostalgic memories of serene moments, providing an escape from the relentless demands of modern life. Marissa has served on the SCA Board for 6 years, in various roles as President, Vice President / Social Media Director and Newsletter Director.