Katerina Mertikas

Katerina Mertikas (nee Patrinos), Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, was born in Tripoli, Greece, in 1957. She has lived in Canada since 1960, first in Montreal, now in Ottawa. Her highly stylized art leaves one with a smile, which is much like Katerina’s optimistic, happy character. Her husband and two daughters are often the inspiration behind many of her paintings. She paints childhood’s fleeting and precious moments, hoping that in each painting someone may recognize themselves in their past or perhaps see their children enjoying their day. The true naive painter creates spontaneously and freely out of the urgings of the heart. The originality and poetic immediacy of such work delight by the unconscious sincerity with which private fantasies have been expressed. Particularly, naive expressionism exhibits not only a decorative and narrative simplicity, but above all, imaginative vividness and infinite delight in discovery. Katerina’s work is sold in many fine galleries in Canada.

Selected collectionsMrs. Aline Chretien
Mrs. Mila Mulroney
Senator/Dr. Wilbert Keon
Embassy of Greece
Ambassador of Greece to Canada, Mr. & Mrs. John Thomogloy
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Eleni Bakopanos, MP
Julios Iglesias
Former Governor General R.J. HnatyshynAwards1999 Women of Distinction Award YM-YWCA
Women of Distinction in the arts categoryDistinctions2000 & 1999 UNICEF Christmas Cards
1997 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Card
1997 & 1995 UNICEF International Christmas cards
1994 Christmas Seal artist for Canadian Lung Association
Her work was on the cover of the 1993/94 UNICEF catalogue and worldwide Christmas card distribution.
1994 Children’s Aid Society Toronto - cardsBibliography

Louis Brouens Art Book 1992, 1995, 1996
Articles in the Ottawa Citizen, The Toronto Sun, Television,
The Ottawa Magazine and the Ottawa Sun.
Magazin Art, No. 3, Spring 1999  

Artist's Website