Ok, here goes my biographical statement:
From Painting to Sewing to Photography, Traveling and Writing projects, Valerie Blondeau, a life-long learner, presents her art through her website and exhibitions to come. Born in Canada she picked up a crayon at a very early age to scribble on paper, the wall and the back of her dresser. She’s the daughter of parents who let their children expand in whatever they wanted to learn. From a father who is a Jack of all Trades she learned how to fix her own bicycle and later her own car. From her mother she acquired her bookworm degree reading everything that interested her in her local library, sewing costumes for theatre and dance and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. While living with her family she traveled coast to coast across Canada and admired her country through the lens of her father's Pentax and an old Brownie Hawkeye.
As her life played out Valerie could pick up any skill and follow it through until the next skill presented itself. Part of her life was spent in the family business of photo processing where black & white and living color emerged. Dabbling into animation through books her father showed her, Valerie wowed her classmates in high school with posters she drew for them. She accumulated a following of friends who constantly ask for drawings of unicorns, some animation projects and various other interesting art projects.
Experimenting in art style, enter the varied courses of Art from Algonquin College and a couple of local schools. Valerie expanded her education and continues to take the occasional course to add to her repertoire. With her cameras Valerie continues her art by capturing images that will later become paintings or preserving an image for a work in progress. An example of this is the current photo posted for viewing. Valerie had started that painting on a cold rainy day and had taken a photo just in case the weather turned really bad, which it did. She now continues that painting with all her other projects on the go.
She is currently learning Spanish and Japanese in preparation for her upcoming travels.
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Here stems my artist statement:
I enjoy painting in all mediums. I am drawn into my painting as the subject emerges from the brush
strokes on the blank canvas. My photography compliments my art medium by preserving an image to paint or stand on its own through my website and photography contracts I am hired for.
Currently, when I am working with watercolor, the paper has a lot to do with the lighting in the work. With oils I find the subject matter brings forth the question of whether or not to use my pallet knife in the project. Acrylics has been the one for me finding the right gloss gel to keep the paint from drying out too fast.
My painting of the female Mallard duck paddling away from me gives me a sense of peace and exploration. A softness yet vibrancy to the greys adds the wave texture to the water. Little streaks of blue from the sky before the clouds thoroughly blocked it out to rain on me. I am at peace and enjoy nature and the world through my art and photography.
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And that's it for today, now onto painting!
