Andrée Chartrand
painter, heartmaker, artist, clown
painter, heartmaker, artist, clown
| Pinka and Patch, St. Petersburg, 2009 |
Education
B.A. History,University of Ottawa, 1980
Fine Arts, University of Ottawa , 1980-81
Studied with the painter Louise Bloom , 1999-2001
Studied with the painter Karen Savage, 2004-2007
Bio
I have been making art all my life,
and became a painter in 1981. Art =
survival. Expression = well being. I
like to make stories with colour. My
style combines narrative colourist
and fauvism and expressionism. I
use many different materials: acrylic,
oil pastels, ink, colored pencils and
charcoal... I often work in a series
and go into deeper and deeper
exploration of a theme until it
transforms into something
completely new. The series are
always surprising. I paint everyday
themes, often a single object or
subject at a time and make them
intimate with a close up frontal
exploration. I want to laugh and
there's humour in my work. I am
laughing all the way to the
revolution!!! My comfort shapes are
trees, children and purses. Colorful
joy is the energy that comes off the
canvasses.
Patch Adams, the clown-doctor,
invited me to travel to Russia and
clown in hospitals and orphanages
with him and 35 clowns in 2000. It
was wild and inspiring time. After
this amazing heart-opening
experience I started making hearts
with felt and beads, lots of them, and
regularly send hearts to Patch to
give away on his house calls to the
planet. A few years later I gave
hearts - and continue to - to women
in recovery in Vermont. When the
Mum's give birth they receive a
heart. Now, some of the Mums and
Doctors and Nurses are making
hearts for mothers in recovery. I
return regularily to Russia with
Patch and friends on a humanitarian
mission to visit orphanages and
hospitals to share laughter and hugs
and mayhem. A total love-fest.
Each heart is a unique and original
art piece hand made with beads
sewn to felt. The hearts heal like a
balm or herb or medicine; the hearts
celebrate like a party; the hearts say
'I love you'. With all my being I
believe in the power of love. I am
thrilled to be riding on the freedom
train, with you, in the Revolution of
Love.
My work is profoundly inspired by
the Fauvist and Expressionist
movements :The Fauves and
Expressionism: "A new movement in
painting appeared in Paris in 1905
under the leadership of Henri
Matisse. The canvasses were so
simplified in design and so
shockingly brilliant in color that a
startled critic described the artists
as fauves (wild beasts). The
"Fauves" were influenced by African
masks, Polynesian textiles, Central
and South American ancient cultures
all using great spontaneity, lively
linear patters and bold primary
colors. The artist's presentation of
his emotional reaction to the subject
in the bolder color and strongest
linear pattern is more important than
any attempts at objective
representation. In a sense color
becomes the "subject" of the
picture. Matisse tells of 'letting the
picture "emerge" out of deep even
unconscious, feeling, letting one's
artistic sensitivity and instinct be
one's guide,' is common in the
practice not only of Expressionism
but in modern art in general." Cited
from Gardner's Art Through the Ages
II, p.809-811
I have been making art all my life,
and became a painter in 1981. Art =
survival. Expression = well being. I
like to make stories with colour. My
style combines narrative colourist
and fauvism and expressionism. I
use many different materials: acrylic,
oil pastels, ink, colored pencils and
charcoal... I often work in a series
and go into deeper and deeper
exploration of a theme until it
transforms into something
completely new. The series are
always surprising. I paint everyday
themes, often a single object or
subject at a time and make them
intimate with a close up frontal
exploration. I want to laugh and
there's humour in my work. I am
laughing all the way to the
revolution!!! My comfort shapes are
trees, children and purses. Colorful
joy is the energy that comes off the
canvasses.
Patch Adams, the clown-doctor,
invited me to travel to Russia and
clown in hospitals and orphanages
with him and 35 clowns in 2000. It
was wild and inspiring time. After
this amazing heart-opening
experience I started making hearts
with felt and beads, lots of them, and
regularly send hearts to Patch to
give away on his house calls to the
planet. A few years later I gave
hearts - and continue to - to women
in recovery in Vermont. When the
Mum's give birth they receive a
heart. Now, some of the Mums and
Doctors and Nurses are making
hearts for mothers in recovery. I
return regularily to Russia with
Patch and friends on a humanitarian
mission to visit orphanages and
hospitals to share laughter and hugs
and mayhem. A total love-fest.
Each heart is a unique and original
art piece hand made with beads
sewn to felt. The hearts heal like a
balm or herb or medicine; the hearts
celebrate like a party; the hearts say
'I love you'. With all my being I
believe in the power of love. I am
thrilled to be riding on the freedom
train, with you, in the Revolution of
Love.
My work is profoundly inspired by
the Fauvist and Expressionist
movements :The Fauves and
Expressionism: "A new movement in
painting appeared in Paris in 1905
under the leadership of Henri
Matisse. The canvasses were so
simplified in design and so
shockingly brilliant in color that a
startled critic described the artists
as fauves (wild beasts). The
"Fauves" were influenced by African
masks, Polynesian textiles, Central
and South American ancient cultures
all using great spontaneity, lively
linear patters and bold primary
colors. The artist's presentation of
his emotional reaction to the subject
in the bolder color and strongest
linear pattern is more important than
any attempts at objective
representation. In a sense color
becomes the "subject" of the
picture. Matisse tells of 'letting the
picture "emerge" out of deep even
unconscious, feeling, letting one's
artistic sensitivity and instinct be
one's guide,' is common in the
practice not only of Expressionism
but in modern art in general." Cited
from Gardner's Art Through the Ages
II, p.809-811
