Dancause Teen

Article by Kathleen Hay
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September 25, 2007

Kathleen Dancause got her nickname thanks to her little sister. "She couldn't say 'Kathleen,' so she started calling me 'Teen' and it stuck," explains the local watercolour artist.

That was back in Toronto, where she grew up in the Jane Bloor district, and where she attended St. James School. The eldest of three sisters and one brother, Teen then studied at St. Joseph's Convent School, then the Ontario College of Art, from which she received her Association Ontario College of Art Diploma (AOCA). It was an intense course where, aside from really enjoying watercolours - her specialty - she also spent copious amounts of time learning portraiture and life models.

During one summer spent working in Millbrook, near Peterborough, she also honed her
skills in graphics. As well, she was employed at the St. George Street branch of the Toronto Public Library for two years in the art department where her primary responsibility was to design posters.

In 1950, after marrying local lawyer, Hugh Dancause, she moved to Cornwall. The parents of seven children - Julianne, Paul, John, Kathy, Merrily, Carol and Susan -
Teen is an active member of the University Women's Club, and looks after their art appreciation committee.

Teen taught art at St Lawrence College for approximately 15 years including courses on art history, paintings, design and colour. In addition, she taught art for the City of
Cornwall's recreation committee for many years, which eventually developed into a group of artists. She is an active member of the Focus Art Group, in Cornwall. She has exhibited with the Massena of artists, as well as at the Cornwall Regional Art Gallery. Teen's work is frequently commissioned, and is available for purchasing both in Canada and in the States.

Q1. Do you remember the first picture you ever painted?
I can't remember the first one, but my father used to sit me in his lap. He worked for CIL
and he'd draw the CIL oval and ships. That's what I remember. I probably started drawing those first.

Q2. What is the most difficult aspect of working in watercolour?
I guess, just getting it the way you want it! I suppose trying to fix something as watercolour is unforgiving. It's the paint. It fast. Of course you can get it if you don't like it, but you can't get if off the way you'd like it to come off.

Q3. Was there ever a painting that, right at the last minute it was looking beautiful, you
messed - up?
Probably, but I can't give you an instance. If it was that, you try to forget about it. I was
told that if you don't like a painting put it in a drawer or a out of sight. Then look at it in six months. I think that's a way to go, rather than tear it up I never tear up paintings, I use the backs of them. Unless, of course I'm painting it for someone else.

Q4. If you weren't into painting, what type of artist would be?
Drawing, I think. Some type of graphics, but that's a pretty loose term. I like black and
ink work - it makes a statement .

Q5. What master would you love to have a lesson with?
Of all the artists I would like to talk with, Leonardo da Vinci. He was the consummate
Renaissance man - musician, poet, architect, sculptor, as well as a painter. He had a brilliant mind, somewhat akin to Shakespeare.

Q6. What's your biggest inspiration in painting?
I like doing figures. My inspiration comes from a time like this ... once we were-coming back from Arizona and we had a few, hours to wait in the Calgary airport. There were a group of Muslim women, and one little boy - he was about two-years-old - he was peeking over his mother's back at me. The veil she wore was just beautiful and here he was, so cute, waving at me over her shoulder.
I went over to ask her if I could take a photo and she said, "Yes," but then I went to use the camera it was one of those disposables and there was no film left. I still have his image in my mind, so I should paint it soon before I forget.

Q 7. Did you have a favourite Christmas present as a child?
I remember doll furniture I got one year. There was a high chair, dresser and cupboard

Q8. What's your ultimate night on the town?
I guess it would be a Broadway musical, like Phantom of the Opera. I've been to
some musicals on Broadway, then we saw Fiddler on the Roof, in London. That was wonderful. We went when the Glen did Fiddler on the Roof here, when Bill Roddy was in it. I was amazed with how well they did. So, dinner and the theatre, but mainly the theatre.

Q9 . What are you known for in the kitchen?
It would have to be sweet potato casserole, and my maple syrup pie. I don't cook like I used to do. I also used to make Yorkshire pudding - the kids haven't had it in a long while - and a roast, pork or beef. They like my tourtière pie but it's seasonal.

Q10. What time of the day do you most enjoy?
I get into bed at night with the morning newspapers. The day is gone, and we're safe and
sound, with no bad news from the kids, nobody's going to phone, and I can read until I get tired and turn out the light. In the morning, Hugh brings me coffee - he knows he has to or I'll never get up.

Q11. What was your childhood ambition?
Just to pass my final exams! I wanted to be an airline stewardess, then I wanted to be an
archeologist because I loved history: Then I just wanted to pass my final exams!

Q12 How did you meet your husband?
I met him at Newman Club, in Toronto. It was a University of Toronto undergraduate club. I was in charge of programs and I knew Pat Rudden through the club. I wanted a chairman for my committee and Pat suggested Hugh. I didn't really know him, except through discussions and debates. I was pretty impressed. I called him to see about the committee and he was a long time getting to the phone. He didn't want to chair the committee, but he said he'd be on it. But he never did anything, he just came to the meetings, Then he called me up before Christmas and asked if I'd go with him to a law students yuletide party,

Q13.What music did you like to listen to as a teenager?
Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, that kind of stuff. We'd go to the Palace Pier or the Royal York and there would be dancing. I always wanted to jitterbug, but never got the hang of it.

Q14. What was your very first job?
It was a part-time job. I was about 16 and I worked at the Marks Bros., a Chinese fruit and vegetable store, on Bloor Street. It was fun. There were three or four of us girls and guys who there on Friday night, then all day Saturday. I think we got paid about 25 cents an hour. Once a year, the owners, Park and Tiny would take us to Chinatown to one of the restaurants where the Chinese people ate.

Q15. What sports do you like to play or watch?
I did play golf for a number of years. I was never a great player. I enjoy watching golf, but it's not the sort of thing where I have to rush in and turn on the television. I don't enjoy hockey the way I used it's too violent now. I did used to love hockey when I was a kid, especially St. Mike's.

Q16. What junk food do you have trouble resisting?
Corn chips with flax from Farm Boy.

Q17. What's the last book you read?
That would be The Kite Runner. It was' written by Afghanistani-American author,
Khaled Hosseini.

Q18. What historical figure would you like to meet?
You can put in Shakespeare. He was ahead of his time. I think I would have been in awe of him. I'd like to have Falstaff with him, too.

Q19. What's your all-time chick flick?
I loved Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy movies when I was a kid. My mother liked them, and I think it was she who probably got me interested in them, too.

Q20. What's your worst habit?
Procrastination. 'Tomorrow' is my greatest time saver. I'm terrible.