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As a child and growing up in South Porcupine, painter Tuula Redditt remembers that her mom would draw and paint on any surface: walls ceiling, floor—even on the refrigerator. The family home was, in effect, her mother’s canvas. And her mom encouraged her to artistically express herself from a very young age. Her older sister picked up the art bug, as well. And Tuula knew from those very early years that she would be an artist. As a youth, she engaged in drawing cartoons with her sister—then excelled further as a visual creative during first class training with good art teachers in high school. And this focus helped her put together a strong portfolio for when she eventually sought out post-secondary training in technical illustration at Sheridan College in Oakville. She thoroughly enjoyed the foundation year and the next three years of commercial illustration training there–and graduated in 1984. And while at Sheridan, she met her husband-to-be, Paul Redditt who was in the same course although they moved on to separate lives in their early employment careers. Interestingly, her very first job was working as a security guard at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto where her duty was to provide protection for the various art exhibits that were on rotating display—including, at one point, a showing of some of Queen Elizabeth’s art collection. She then moved on to design labels at a yarn manufacturer, followed by creating ads and billboards for a lumber firm. And after that was hired by Atlantis Aerospace—a business engaged in aircraft maintenance training and provider of aviation training solutions in Woodbridge—where her technical drawings and work on animation software were used to instruct aircraft mechanics on aspects of their assembly work. And Atlantis was where she discovered that former student friend and eventual husband, Paul Redditt was employed. They were married in 1990. Tuula worked at Atlantis for 12 years before moving on with Paul to create their own design firm, Sky Studio—working from their home in Brampton, creating technical drawings for a variety of businesses. The pair branched out to hand-painting wildlife on T-shirts and sweatshirts and displayed and sold them at regional craft shows—with Tuula winning a juried show award in the 1990s. She eventually added paintings of wild life to her repertoire and engaged in the making of hundreds of small portrait commissions she accepted by mail order—using provided photo prints as reference; and sending the finished watercolours and drawings to her clients by mail.
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In 2025, the Redditts decided to get away from the hustle and bustle of southern Ontario and found a dream home with lots of acreage on Airport Road just outside Bancroft. And moved there and established themselves—with both pursuing fine art careers. Tuula makes paintings in acrylics on canvas of wild life: owls, foxes, deer and turtles as well as exotic animals like zebras and tigers. She has also immortalized her late pet dog dressed in a hat and wearing a monocle and a bow tie and seated in a chair! Tuula and Paul will be setting up for the September Tour in a tent and a shed on their property. She can be reached at tuularedditt@gmail.com (Profile writing and photo by Allan O’Marra) |
