Delora Lalande

Born into a wacky Vaudevillian family of actors, musicians, crusaders and malcontents, Delora’s young creative voice was pretty much stifled as louder family members drown her out. However, she honed her skills in construction and design during her working career, took up quilting in her thirties, watercolors in her forties and acrylics & oils in her fifties. Her passion for portraiture probably stems from when her mother used a portrait of herself (painted on canvas board) as a sled for young Delora by drilling two holes through the work and inserting a rope. The painting was repaired and now hangs in Delora’s home (although she’s prone to telling people her Mom was a gangster’s moll and the holes were a result of gun shots). Delora is an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and is treasurer of the Central Okanagan Chapter. Mom to three, step-mom to five and Gramma to a huge brood of 22, when not keeping track of birthdays, she happily or frustratedly paints almost every day in her studio behind her home.