Isabel is primarily a maker, devoted to process, play, engagement and stories. She is an inter- disciplinary artist (painter, singer songwriter, filmmaker and arts based occupational therapist). Her first love was visual arts. She pursued Fine Arts studies at York University, later gaining a degree in Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto where she currently holds as an adjunct status lecturer position and consults and collaborates with Dr. Janet Parsons developing a creative collaboratory in arts based wellness in healthcare practice, education and research. For most of her career she developed and provided accessible and restorative community art programming for adults living with mental health and addiction issues, as founder of the Creative Works Studio in Toronto.   She also provides training and educational online resources through her arts based well-being toolbox. Only in the last couple of years she has returned to her visual arts practice as she actively emerges as a painter.

Her years working with ‘untrained artists’ taught her much about visceral art making and has inspired her to approach her own painting practice from an authentic place of inquiry. The unexpected death of her sister in 2022 had left her with the realization of the preciousness of time and instilled the desire to return full heartedly back to painting. All her life and creative experiences feed into her painting practice today. She rented a communal studio space at Akin and later was fortunate to get a shared space at 401 Richmond. Working with other artists in these communities has further ignited her commitment to her painting practice. Isabel has developed her practice of plein airpainting in her many travels to inspirational locations including the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Maine and New York. In 2018, she completed two art residencies: Gilbraltor Point Artscape, on Toronto Island and in Borgo a Moazzano, Italy. She has participated in juried and group shows since: Why the @#$% You Paint Show at the Gladstone Hotel, Nuit Blanche at Spadina House, AGO online portraits of Resilience , the Chirstie Pits Artist show, Aird Gallery. Recently Isabel paints all the things she loves in her neighbourhood  where she lives in Toronto. She paints both plein air and from her own photographs that she shoots on her iphone as references. She is fascinated by the diverse and wild gardens, the parks, the people, the old storefronts. She wants to archive and document through painting what she fears will be lost or no longer accessible, nor equitable. Fryszberg’s work is characterized by a strong appreciation for nature, colour, and landscape. She takes a lyrical and playful approach, dancing between the seen and unseen, realism and abstraction, colour and light.  She draws from the post impressionists, Twentieth to Twenty-First century artists, music, and everyday life. Her work has been sold to private collectors.

 
 
 

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EXHIBITIONS AND PROJECTS

Gladstone photo.jpeg

Why the @#&! do you Paint?

Opening Night Gladstone Hotel, Toronto