Michèle LaRose Original Oil Paintings

Michèle LaRose studied fine art in Québec City, Montréal and Brockville. She has a B.A. (Art History) from Queen`s University. Michèle’s main focus is painting, with forays into printmaking and book illustration. Her focus is abstraction and colour, the nature of which she plumbs for new insights. She is intrigued by the interaction of colour and form and the spontaneous and intuitive leaps that occur. She is driven by curiosity and challenges, investigating what different processes yield or how the application of constraints opens up new avenues of exploration. Like many before her, Michèle likens her work to instrumental music, with its orchestrations of multiple and competing instruments, sometimes complex other times minimal. Of equal interest is the function of the brain, which seeks to decipher any image into recognizable shapes, and how this reveals itself no matter how un-representational the paintings are. Michèle has exhibited extensively since 1994. She illustrated 2 books of poetry: “X” by Phil Hall, Governor-General Award-winning poet, published in 2013; and “From the Mouths”, by Shane Neilson, 2014; both published by Thee Hellbox Press of Kingston. In 2018 she published a book of her paintings with poetry by herself and Bruce Kauffman entitled “The Elm Suite”. She is a member of CARFAC, the Modern Fuel Artist Run Centre in Kingston, the Union Gallery (Queen’s), the Organization of Kingston Women Artists and the Agitated Plover Salon, an artists’ collective established in Kingston and active until late 2014. For more information see: www.michelelarose.ca, Instagram: @michelelaroseart, Facebook: Michele M LaRose

Paint provides me with the colour I need to convey my take on this astounding world. There is a richness in artists’ materials, especially paint, that allows substance and texture in my focus on shape, colour, and energy. The ability to smear colours on a surface has been satisfying and enriching to me since my first days finger-painting in kindergarten. And this activity allows me to create things I have never seen before! Although I work primarily in oil these days, I have used all media over the years. Each has great possibilities and physical drawbacks. So, I do change from time to time and experiment with new materials when they are available or opportunities present themselves. These paintings are the first I have done on aluminum panels (Alu) and I am curious to see how well they weather their travels.