A Famous French Artist

Several years ago I did the Camino Pilgrimage in northern Spain and rather than keep a written journal I kept a painting journal in watercolour instead. My companion, Fr. Tim Coonen, kept our pilgrimage progress on Facebook and always referred to me as the famous French artist. Well, let it be known that I am of French descent but I am far from being famous.

I returned to creating art after being away from it for a number of years for various reasons but now I’m making up for lost time. In the mid 1990’s a friend called me saying that their small village had invited an artist to give a weekend workshop and asked if I would be interested. This was my reintroduction into the art world. The workshop, which was held in village of Cranberry, Manitoba was an introduction using colored pencils. It is with earnest that I took on this medium but quickly realized that this form of art was far too time consuming. It was then that I decided to try watercolours. The initial idea was great but, living in an isolated area meant I had no one to introduce me to this medium. The problems quickly arose where I was using either too much water or not enough. Nevertheless I ploughed on for a few years but without much success. Again, a decision was made and this time I turn to oils. It is at this stage that I found an art teacher who being a master in his own right became my mentor in for the next few years. It is during these years that I produced what I feel are good works of art and that people actually willing to buy them. The summer of 2012 brought in another change in my artistic life and this was done by my introduction to the art of Winslow Homer, a famous American painter of the late 19th century and early 20th century.

During the summer of 2012 and inspired by the works of Winslow Homer, I created a number of small watercolour paintings which I showed to my art professor in the fall. After studying these small paintings he urged me to turn to watercolours for the next two years. During this time I was given no end of challenges in this art form. I was asked to create very small paintings and then turn to the largest sized art paper on the market to create on a large scale. To my surprise I found it easy to create art in watercolour and even won top prizes in art competitions for my work.

My dream now is that one day I would sneak into the National Art Gallery, hang a painting, take a picture and run. Hopefully the parking lot is not too large so I can make my escape before they can catch me.

By Robert Laroche, OMI