Collection: Annette Blady & Al Van Mil

Career artists Annette Blady and Al Van Mil are married and have been creating art for 40 years in Toronto, Canada. Their loyal clients across America and Europe include individual patrons who have collected many of their works.

Annette Blady

Annette Blady was born in Toronto, Canada. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1980. In the following decade, partnering with Van Mil in an architectural model making company, she rose to international prominence as an interior designer. Her work included model suites for major condominium projects such as The Nieman Marcus Centre in Chicago, Harbourfront in Toronto, and The World Financial Centre in Battery Park, New York City. Blady moved on from design work in 1989 to pursue a full-time career in fine art.

Exhibiting internationally, Blady’s canvases can now be found in many prominent galleries and private collections in Canada, the United States and Europe. Her eclectic style uses textured exotic papers and fabrics, cut glass, and metallic acrylic, as mixed media collage painting. She links motifs from ancient symbolism with those of modern design and abstract expressionism.

Al Van Mil

Al Van Mil was born in Texel, Holland. For most of the last 50 years, he has worked in acrylic or oil paint on large canvases. His work ranges from landscapes and portraits, to abstracts, to eclectic hybrids of these conventions. “I enjoy mixing visual metaphors,” he says.

Painting full time since 1989, his work has been exhibited in private and public galleries, including the Musee Des Beaux-Arts in Montreal. He has honed his collaborative approach by painting onstage as a Performance Artist, co-designing sets for operas, and illustrating children’s books.

Van Mil’s early work was shown at the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario. He received mentoring from Conceptual Artist Eric Cameron while studying Fine Art at the University of Guelph.