Bio

''We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.''           T.S Eliot

After much exploration both creatively and in life I have returned to my first love, painting with oils. 

At the age of 13, I first tried oil painting and fell in love with this medium. Colors have always been a great source of inspiration for me, as have oils, with their transparencies and layering of colors. I attribute much of my technique with oils to my great teacher and mentor, Jean-Marie Pirot, alias Arcabas, a renowned French painter. He was invited by the Arts department of Ottawa University while I was there and I had the privilege of studying with him from 1969 until 1972.

With my Bachelor of Arts degree and a South American literature degree in hand, I left Canada to pursue my studies in Mexico City the summer of 1972. At the UNAM- National University of Mexico, I met Professor Messeger who invited me to pursue my fine arts studies in ‘La Esmeralda’ School of Fine Arts. This is where I studied the old masters’ techniques including the complex technique of egg tempera. My paintings are largely influenced by the colors and the fine gestural movements of the Mexican muralists such as Diego Ribera and Rufino Tamayo. I also studied one year at the UNAM -San Carlos School of fine arts where I drew live models for eight hours a day using a gestural drawing technique. The line became an intimate way of expression and I started working more intensely with this new language. From this time onwards, drawing became an important source of expression in my work.

A long silence followed my stay in Mexico. It seemed important for me to first live my life and experiment as much as possible. For the next fifteen years I did not paint. During that time, I lived for seven year in Venezuela on a farm, close to nature. This rest helped me to replenish myself in a rural life, far away from my cold northern home. Here I learned to discover new ways of living, to breathe and to nourish myself with new experiences. 

My stay in Latin America will always be a part of me and is part of my artistic language through the colors, the light and freedom of the line. Rufino Tamayo, the Mexican master of colors greatly influenced me in this as well.

Upon my return to Montreal in 1982, I started working in cinema, more specifically at the National Film Board of Canada from 1990 until 2011. Being exposed to this new type of artistic expression and creative language brought another dimension to my art. The artistry of animation filmmaking, with its diverse techniques helped improve my understanding of composition, movement and light.

In 1989, I start drawing live models in different workshops where I re-discovered the mighty line with all of its strength of purpose. At the same time, the discovery of acrylic painting helped me to get out of the studio and explore open spaces and landscapes of different regions and countries.

Traveling became an even more important factor in my work as it was transformed by the magical landscapes that nourished my imagination.

Turning points for me were the village of Mantet, in the south east of France in 1994 and Symi, a magical Greek island in 2002. I tried to seize the light of these places and resurrect their souls on canvas. 

Back in my Montreal studio in 1996, it was a series of female faces that emerged with their emotions and spirits laid bare. An introspective effort, this work evoked the various facets of their being. 

In 2005, I explored the line in its purest form and fragility via a series of birds painted with watercolor pencils and chalks. Here the transparencies of the blues and the litheness of the line is what shines through. Once again, it is while traveling that I continued on the path of the birds for 3 years. 

In 2010, in my Montreal studio, I took up with my old friends, those vivid oils, to explore, once again, the fascinating world of color.

I worked on a series of oil paintings and drawings on canvas and had a three week show at Gala Gallery, in Montreal in November 2011. 

Moving Inward presented colorful oil paintings of people in their vulnerable moment when their inner voice is whispering to them or when silence is nourishing them. I wanted to seize this very intimate moment.

In November of 2012, I prepared another show at Gala Gallery, continuing my conversation with people and their vulnerability but this time drawing on Mylar paper which gave me the fragility of transparencies.

2013 was a pivotal year for me for I moved to the beautiful country village of Stanbridge East QC, near the Vermont border. I now reside there permanently where I have a studio to further my quest with art.

Where will this journey take me? Who knows! But I know it will be inspiring and I invite you to come back and visit me again.