NOTL artist Nancy Wardle exhibited her talent at Queenston Pottery for her “Meet the Artist” event last Saturday.

Wardle’s art was hung on the walls of Queenston Pottery on July 31 as part of the business’s visiting artist program, where the shop is turned into an artist’s gallery for six weeks.

The program is designed to bridge gaps between artistic communities — connecting pottery enthusiasts to painting lovers.

During her meet and greet, Wardle worked on a portrait in real time.

She starts her paintings with a grid and sketch, before doing a value study of her reference image — turning the image black and white to see the distribution of light and dark tones.

“I put magenta over top of the face to give it some light under the skin before I start doing the skin colour,” she said.

Wardle is a member of the NOTL Arts Collective, a group dedicated to making NOTL a hub for artistry. Other members of the collective, such as Lynn Gaetz and Julia Kane, came to support the exhibit, while other guests were shopping for pottery and stopped to see the art.

“It was nice to see people come in that are truly here as appreciators,” Wardle said.

Queenston Pottery’s 2025 visiting artist program launched in April and has two more artists to go after Wardle — Julie Forrester Clark from Sept. 4 to Nov. 10, and Colleen Green from Nov. 11 to Dec. 31.

Lisa Dahl, daughter-in-law of Queenston Pottery owner Eva Mlcak, explained the simple characteristics they look for in potential artists.

“There’s really no cookie-cutter,” Dahl said. “We are looking for something different each time so that our customers have a reason to come back and see something different.”

“We’re really just looking for artists that are true artists … they love their work and want a place to showcase it,” she added.

Like the NOTL Arts Collective, Queenston Pottery hopes to foster a space for artistry in town.

“Our artists have had so much joy in being able to have a place to display their work because there’s not really a lot of places within Niagara-on-the-Lake that make it easily accessible,” Dahl said.

“We’re just pleasantly surprised by how well it’s all gone.”

Applications for the 2026 visiting artist season are open on Queenston Pottery’s website.