Lillian Loponen (b. 1946)
Lillian Loponen was born in the logging community of Longlac, Ontario of Finnish Canadian background. She came to the Yukon in 1979 and she and her husband raised three sons here. Loponen has been painting in water colours since 1976. One of her paintings is in the Diamond Jubilee Collection donated by the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and accepted in 1985 as one of sixty paintings for the Royal Collection of Drawing and Watercolours, Windsor Castle, England.1) Lillian has four works in the Yukon permanent Art Collection: three watercolours on paper (1982 and 1984) and one acrylic on canvas (2009).
Lillian spent three weeks at an artist residency, Koli Ryynä, in eastern Finland, and then collaborated with her three sons to create an experimental immersion into Finnish folklore, Into the Kalevala. The exhibit was shown at the Yukon Arts Centre in September/November 2019. Lillian created the visual elements, Chris Stephenson added text, Shawn Stephenson created, recorded and performed the music, and Justin Stephenson produced an animated video, Into, Into the Kalevala, inspired by the visuals.2)
Lillian’s retrospective exhibit, “45 Years of Northern Light with Lillian Loponen: A Farewell Exhibition,” was shown at the Yukon Arts Centre, Yukon Energy Community Gallery, in August 2024.3)