Fergus artist Jean Loney appreciated the beauty of life

Much like her art, the life of Fergus resident Jean Loney was a mosaic, telling the story of a person described as creative, honest, humourous and well-read.

On Dec. 14, Jean passed away in her 75th year. She was a retired primary teacher turned mosaic artist, who was a member of the Society of American Mosaic Artists, the Society Of Canadian Mosaic Artist and part of an eight-women artist collective called Octarine Women Artists' Collective. 

"She just got better and better at it," said George Loney, Jean's husband, about her mosaics. "She began to become known in other parts of the country."

“I know that we all talk about her art the same way, we all have pieces from her that will live on,” said Leanne Johns, a friend of Jean who taught with her for 10 years.

Born in London, England, in 1946 to parents Andrew and Alison Rhodes, Jean came to Canada with her sister, father and mother two years later. The Rhodes family had a passion for reading, and Jean would remain an avid reader throughout her life.

"If you read a lot, your kids will also read a lot," said George, noting their daughters, Alison and Heather Loney, are also avid readers.

As a young adult living in Toronto, Jean attended teacher's college and got her first teaching job in North York at Jane and Finch. She then taught in Erin and Fergus at James McQueen Public School and Victoria Terrace Public School. 

Throughout Jean's 28-year career as a teacher, George said she never taught above the primary grades. 

"It really appealed to her to work with little kids," George said about Jean's teaching career. "To her, the real thrill was watching these children learn to read."

George and Jean first met in 1972 through a ballet class. George said he was seeing a different woman who was attending the class with Jean. After meeting Jean, the two began dating and married in February of 1973. The couple went on to raise a family in Fergus and endure hardships together. 

"She was beautiful, smart and relatively adventurous at the time," George said about Jean. "She loved her kids, her grandkids and me."

When the couple moved to Fergus in 1975, George said the backyard of their home was all dirt. Over the years, Jean converted the dirt into a lush, perennial garden.

"It was the most astounding thing she ever did," George said about the garden. 

Johns adds Jean was always willing to share her gardening knowledge, and her plants, with others.

“Lots of people have pieces of her garden in their garden. I can walk around my garden and see the things she has given me over the past 30 years, up until last spring," she said.

When she wasn't in her backyard, Jean could be found at Belwood Lake Sailing Club with her family, enjoying a book on land. She and George also made frequent trips to Nevis, a Caribbean island near St. Kitts. George said the couple loved the island and would return to the same place and stay at the same house.

Perhaps one thing Jean loved more than Nevis was coffee. George mentions she had cups of coffee at the same time every day.

"I always knew when we were travelling somewhere, we had to plan our trip around the hours of 11 .a.m and 4 p.m."

After retiring in 2002, Jean continued to fill in as a substitute teacher. She did that until deciding to pursue her interest in mosaics and took courses at the Haliburton School of Arts and Design. She also joined the Elora Fergus Art Tour, helping to coordinate the event for four years.

"It's a local group and everyone knows everyone else, and she really enjoyed being part of an artist community," said George.

He adds Jean's interest in mosaics was inspired by her daughter Alison, who accidentally knocked over some plates that had been hanging on the wall when she was younger.

"She had the artistic talent, but she didn't have the medium," said George, "One day, Jean took these pieces and started gluing them into different patterns and stuff, and she liked it and decided to pursue that."

A lot of Jean's work also featured birds and frogs, which George points out to Jean's interest in teaching ecology when she was a primary teacher.

"The kids used to call her the 'frog lady' because she would take these primary classes to a stream, which was about two blocks down the street, and she would take the kids and they would go looking for frogs," said George. "It just became a recurring theme."

Since Jean was an early member of the CMA and participated in their first ever show, George said the CMA is planning a tribute for Jean this fall.