Martin Ouellette Mixed Media on Wood Panel
Martin Ouellette (Montreal, Canada) ‘In Between Layers’ 2010, Mixed Media & Oil on Wood Panel, 36 x 36 inches x nearly 3 inches thick. Acquired directly fro the artist. Signed, Titled and Dated on verso. $1450
BIO:
Ouellette was born in a small country town called St-Pascal-Baylon (Ontario) in 1979. From an early age, nature had a big influence on his imaginary world. He moved to Toronto in 1998 to attend the Ontario College of Art and Design. During his five years of art studies, he spent two years in Florence Italy in the OCAD Off campus program and he experimented with lots of different mediums as well as photography.
Ouellette paints from focused and unfocused perspectives of decayed macro objects, filtered and infused with the memory and nostalgia of his childhood adventures. His palette emerges directly from his intimate observations of the minuscule details of everyday life in the city. Ouellette’s stunning use of colour creates subtle layers of incorporated imagery or texture which are used as a focus point to direct the eye and provoke each individual’s own imagination, thoughts and feelings.
Ouellette now lives in Montreal. Over the years, he has taken part in numerous exhibitions in Canada and abroad.
Artist Statement:
The Beauty in the Banal
“There is something sacred in the profane, something beautiful and lasting in the fleeting moment of forgotten things that get thrown away or left behind. My paintings are inspired from macro photographs of decaying objects found in the urban landscape; details of worn out magazines, wires, rusted nails or wooden poles layered with staples and torn up paper. These mass-produced items are used to serve a momentary purpose then left to decay in their natural surroundings. In this transitional state, in this moment somewhere between glory and gloom, I find a new world that is a part of every day life even though we rarely notice it. Only upon careful consideration, are there layers and layers of worlds existing within each other that unravel. Time and the cycle of life of these objects are what I find fascinating. I see the aesthetics of decay – a natural decay of the objects – as one aspect. Then there is the period of time and history materialized; time forms a unique trace of its trajectory, influenced by its surrounding environment and climate. At the same time, these objects are naturally evolving and slowly decaying to its death”.
“My paintings are created by capturing that perfect moment. I design my compositions by dissecting multiple photographs of the same item. Leaving behind the unimportant elements by blurring and blending them into the background. I highlight an area by creating another dimension with textures, gravel, dirt, wax, plaster, and at times sculpting through the actual wood canvas. When I add an image, I like to leave just enough elements of its original self: a pixilated image of a pop icon or graphic key words in order to form an identity to these abstractions. The image teases the viewers’ curiosity and their need to give definition to what they are looking at”.