Roberta Joan Anderson's sixth grade teacher once told her: "You love to paint with brushes and colors. Someday I think you'll love to paint with words."

Twelve years later those words proved prophetic. Roberta, her name now Joni Mitchell, released her first album. That record and a string of personal appearances put Miss Mitchell into the top echelon of musical poets.

A recent review of her show in Detroit compared her with the guru of the genre, Bob Dylan. The review said she equals him in "richness and profusion of imagery....surpassing him in conciseness and direction."

Miss Mitchell, who will appear Sunday at 8:30 p.m. in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts, was born Nov. 7, 1943 in McLeod, Alberta. She attended school, in Saskatoon, Sask., and, bent on a career as a commercial artist, enrolled in the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. She bought a ukelele "just to pass the time" and soon found she could earn pocket money by singing folk songs in local coffee houses.