Born in Athens, Greece, Yana was formally trained in art in Sheffield and Bristol England. She came to Canada in 1956, and since then she had an active career as a painter and art instructor for the city of Mississauga for fifteen years, plus teaching credit courses at Sheridan College in oils, watercolours, life drawing, monoprinting, and art history for approximately ten years. In the summer she ran her own Art School in Port Carling, Muskoka.

Her works are owned by major corporations and collectors around the world.

Yana's Thoughts - Year 2000

We are all complex creatures to some extent and as a complex creature I am many things. I get lost in a sunbeam and can watch squirrels and birds for hours without guilt. I stare at a face in the crowd because I love its shape and I promise myself to paint it one day. It could be at once, or years later. Having a photographic memory helps.

The countries I lived in during my life have ensconced themselves in my heart. The luscious green hills of England; especially the Yorkshire moors. The sparkling white stucco walls of Greece against the bluest sky. The dry earth with its marvelous shapes and colours of Cyprus's land with its secret streams bursting through the rocks. The open air cafés of Paris, the romantic gondolas of Venice gliding through the mist, Italy's sophistication and earthiness at the same time, and then... Canada! With its virgin wild northlands, its glassy lakes and those wonderful early morning sounds.

You will find them all in my paintings. You will also find yourself in them. I have seen you and you have influenced me. Hence my philosophy that, "Everything influences everything else. When you enter a room for the first time you'll be different in some way when you leave it. The stranger who is sitting next to you might save your life or ruin it. And gazing at a painting might touch a chord in your heart and make a difference." I portray my philosophy in my "Linear Images" paintings of cityscapes.

When I paint landscapes I try to keep as close to reality without compromising my painting style. I don't copy nature. I let it inspire me and awake me to its spiritual heartbeat. If I depart too far from nature's reality, I deprive my viewers from feeling what I feel when I see the magic of clouds, the peacefulness of a vast field or the mystery of a forest, the playful weeds mixed with the wild flowers and a land carpeted in brilliant "Toasted yellow".

I care deeply about the evolution of Art in Canada. Carrying the "Torch" of our past century painters is a great responsibility.

Copyright © Yana Headford

Crescent Hill Gallery, Mississauga. Phone: 905-820-2233

Yana is pleased to announce that Thomson-Nelson Publishers has purchased non-exclusive rights to "The Flute Player" for use in one of their new books.

Click on image to enlarge

Linear Images Series

Emma	Helen	Open Air Café	Saturday Night
The Studio	A Day at Georgian Bay	My Back Yard	Helen's Table
Front Steet Café	Farmers Market	Flute Player	Young Couple
Michael	The Cheeseman	Family Reunion	The Flower Stall

Northern Visits Series

The Forks	Georgian Bay #2	Band's Island #1	Georgian Bay #3
Georgian Bay #4	Moon River	Mulmur Hills	Maples
Glenbern Forest	Panorama Bay - Port Carling	Rivers Edge	Evening Reflections
Rattray Marsh #2	Bands Island #2	Waiting	Inland Waterways

© All images Copyright by the artist.