Mixed media

The mixed media paintings displayed on this portfolio are contemporary in style although they are also decorative to a certain degree.

I think about my paintings, and art in general as something you want to be surrounded by and display in your home, in a word something that you are living with, so I would like them to focus on positive aspects, give some pleasure to look at.

My landscape series isn't specific enough to depict a precise location; they are more about a general idea about what a landscape is. Most of the time, they are void of any trace of human presence. This could be read as an idealized version of the landscape, pre industrial, a very isolated landscape or as an "after mankind" landscape.

In style, those landscapes can be linked to the color field tradition, the designs being very simple, but the color fields themselves have a great complexity, they are made by overlying of a great number of layers that are worked with a lot of different adding and subtracting techniques.

The interior scenes are painted using the same kind of stratified technique, constantly adding and removing layers or parts of layers of contrasting colors, but the design is often more complex, giving opportunities to build complex edges which is often the place in the painting where you can see most of the layering work. Those interiors and still life usually have a peaceful and comforting feel, home representing a safe haven from the outside world.

I recently started working on a series of cityscapes; those paintings have also complicated designs with superimposition of contrasting coloured layers. They are more about the excitement of living in a big city, bursting with life. In a way they are the opposite of the landscape because everything is about the excitement of the human made environment.

Watercolor Portraits

My portraits are a way for me to tell stories about the people around me. That's why I feel the need to know the people I am painting, or to paint the people I know.

These stories can be about childhood fantasy or fairy tales (I wish it would snow Flowers, Hair Balloon, Georgia, the Spanish dress and the Eclectus Parrot) or leave more space for interpretation like the portraits with themes of introspection (Mixed, In the studio).

Those portraits are not about likeness or knowing the people that are being painted, as I see my models as actors in a movie, they are the faces that will allow me to tell a story or to shaw emotions. Those faces are a source of endless fascination and I find the subtlety that can be achieved with watercolor well suited to the complexity of the human face.

My technique involves the accumulation of many transparent layers of watercolor. Then I like to incorporate mixed media in the background, work sometimes with some contouring. I also sometimes like to add some drawing on top of the painting.

Since 2002 I am an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and obtained the Associate Membership status in 2010. I am also a signature member of the Northwest Watercolor Society and San Diego Watercolor Society since 2010. I had paintings exhibited in numerous juried exhibitions in Canada and in the United States, I had a feature article in the August 2009 issue of Watercolor Artist magazine, have been published in a few books including the next book of the Splash series Splash 11 New directions: the Best of Watercolor available in June 2010, Splash 12 , and the book, Best of Watermedia Worldwide (Kennedy publishing).