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Bio
As my name suggest, I was born and raised in a town north of Québec city, called Chicoutimi. It is a beautiful region along the Saguenay river, in the mountains. This is where I got my love of nature and also my love of Winter. If you don’t like Winter, Chicoutimi is probably not the best place for you to live. I moved from Chicoutimi to the Ottawa region, where I stayed for 34 years, before moving to the wonderful province of Nova Scotia in 2020.
I started drawing in my childhood and never really stopped during the years that I worked as a nurse. But I really started taking my art seriously in 2000. I got sick and had to stay home, so I concentrated on art, drawing and taking lessons in oil painting and colour theory under Deborah Czernecky for six years. For me, painting became my salvation and it is still a great source of contentment and satisfaction.
I painted in oil for 16 years before I started painting with watercolour. I traveled a lot and watercolour is a good medium to travel with. It took me a while to get use to that new way of using paint. The process is reverse from oil and is, in my opinion, one of the hardest mediums to work with. It does not let you correct mistakes but the transparencies are wonderful. And the results are often surprising. It also helps me to keep my work loose and simplified. Lately, I have been experimenting with ink in my watercolour paintings. I like to bring some of the chaos under a little bit of control and also the intensity of the colours. I use different sizes of ink pens to increase the perspective and bring the principal subject of my painting into focus. It is a different way of using water mediums and makes my work more unique. With water mediums, I found they are a great way to help communicate the emotions I feel when I look at my environment with the viewer.
My inspiration from the beginning was nature. It is infinitely varied and changing. Nature is beautiful. Cities are also interesting in their unique way and a challenge to paint.
I like to paint outdoors, in either oil or water. If you want to loosen you work and paint faster, paint outdoors! The light that changes, the bugs that land in your paint, the cold, the wet, the wind, the immense feel of the outside, they all contribute to make you a better painter. I have painted ‘plein air’ with friends, alone, on regular of painting trips all over the world. It keeps me young and fascinated by what is around me.
I joined Art 1274 Hollis in 2022, a local artist co-op, one and a half year after moving to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. You can see me and my work in person there (See current hours at Contact Me). What a wonderful province for painters!
EDUCATION
Visual Art Centre, Orleans, under Professor Deborah Czernecky. 2000- 2006
Colour theory #1 Sept 2003 to Dec 2003 & #2 Jan to April 2006, under Debora Czernecky
Kerry Vaughan Workshop November 2003
Denise Pelletier Workshop January 2005
Outdoor Painting trips with the Painting Buddies, May 07 organization and participant
Plein Air painting in Kamouraska, de 2008 to 2019, X 1 week, x8 times
Life drawing, Orleans, Dec 07 to June 11
Wildlife art with David Kittler, May 2013
Plein Air painting trips with the Plein Air Ensemble, since 2024 and organization between 2015 and 2017.
AWARDS
AWARDS:
Galerie de la Rive, Viewer’s Choice 1st place for ‘Deux Chevaux dan la Neige II’, Dec 7th, 2008
Arteast: Third place, oil category, for ‘Annecy France’, Oct 07
Arteast: Second place, oil category, for ‘Jeune Femme au collier’, Sept. 06
Arteast: Second place, oil category, for ‘Safe in Port’, September 2005
Arteast: Second place, oil category, for ‘Brigus, NFL’, September 2004
Ottawa Art Association: First place oil category, for ‘Sunset on Ice’, Dec 03
Arteast: Honourable mention, Sept.2003, oil category, for ‘Cape Spear’
Ottawa Art Association, Second place, oil cat. for ‘Rock Face, June 03’
Ottawa Art Association, Honourable mention, oil cat. For ‘Carlos’, Nov 09
Ottawa Art Association, First place, oil category, for ‘Morning commute’, Nov 2010
Ottawa Art Association, Second place, oil category, for ‘Frozen Pond’
Graig gallery DVAS art show, sept 2021, viewer choice award for ‘ At the cottage’
EXHIBITIONS
Coloris sur la Baie, Rockland, Ontario, Oct 2007 and 2008, juried
Artour, Clarence-Rockland, Sep 2007, Sept 2009 and 2011 and 2012, 2014, juried
Galerie de la Rive, Rockland, organiser and participating artist, 2005 to Oct 2011
Galerie Old Chelsea, 2008 to 2012 ,juried
Arbor Gallery, Jan-Feb 09
Galerie Old Chelsea, two artists show, Dec 12, 2009, to Jan 6, 2010.
Galerie les Trois Petits Points, Alexandria, March & April 2010, solo
Galerie Atrium, Nepean, with the Kam 7, Sept 2011
Carp fall art show, Oct 2012-13 et 14
Nepean Christmas and Spring show, Dec 2012 and April 2013
Café de Joel, Rockland, Solo, Dec 2012
Bean Town, March 2013
Galery Wall Space, Orleans, 7 artists, April 2013
Barnyard Studio Extravenza, August 2013-14-15-16
Galup gallerie: Novembre to December, 2015
Tyros restaurant: Janvier and February 2016
Hadda’ds: February 2016
Maison Dorion-Coulombe, Parc de la Rivière St-Charles, solo Mars and Aprli 2016
Mariposa, July and August 2016
Il Primo restaurant, Septembre and October 2016, solo
Gallery Old Chelsea, October and November 2016
YMCA December 2018, group show
Orleans Library since 2018, on going
YMCA Octobre 2019, 2 artists show
Gallery 97, Lower Sackville, since sept 2021
DVAS Graig gallery artshow, sept 2021
Art1274Hollis, Halifax, since 2021