My Story
I am a visual artist, originally from Quebec in Canada now based in Ballydesmond in County Cork Ireland. I have painted with oils for many years but life brought me on all sorts of different roads and painting became somewhat of a rarely visited friend. As I discovered a passion for restoring and upcycling old things and woke up my creative mind, my brushes came calling again. Although most of my time is now spent around my painting business, creating original oil paintings, I still allow time for upcycling, putting brushes to something else than canvas, something also dear to my heart.
I launched my Art business in 2016 selling my original oil paintings and taking commissions. My main goal is to create something beautiful that will speak to you, whatever it whispers is your own. I hope you can get lost in the colors and that something there will make you smile.
Ireland is blessed with unspoiled landscapes, and a dramatic contrast in light at different times and in different weather. Often, I stop on the side of the road, just to capture the brief moment when the light is just perfect, and as I am a dreadful photographer, I interpret what I see in paint.
I also can’t resist the beauty of colorful towns and fishing boats and you’ll find those in many of my seascapes. I work mainly with oil paints in a style that is intuitive and expressive. Bold colours and contrasts, full texture and perspective are what define my paintings. I enjoy above all the process of sculpting with the rich paint, freely yet methodically making the colours meet or mix on the canvas.
My work often starts with several pictures and sketches, just from the side of the road or from a lovely town that spoke to me whilst I visited. I might use a main picture to help construct my composition, but will use several others, maybe completely unrelated to create a color palette.
I like to make mini oil sketches to make some final decisions, but in reality, I have to let things happen on the canvas. After priming my canvas with a bright color wash (because it makes me happy, but also because I believe it gives more depth and enriches the painting), I work with a “wet on wet” technique with palette knives. Some planning is needed before hand, but I won’t pretend I remain in control the whole way through, I work intuitively and with music in the background, I like to follow the rhythm and move the knife freely.