Gallery
Marc Bélanger ©2016
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Statement
I believe that being an artist is a matter of desire, sincerity and ability. A real artist must have the desire to produce and to create, the sincerity to express his desires and the ability to convey and achieve his goals.
I also believe that inspiration is an illusion and that only action leads to creation. For me, it is when the pencil or the brush touches the paper that creation happens. As such, I never have a lack of inspiration, because I can trigger it at will just by starting to draw. Then I get "inspired".
Bio
I was born in Jonquière, Québec. I spent my teens and most of my adult life in the Ottawa region, where I did a bachelor in Fine Arts (University of Ottawa, 1985). My professional life had mostly to do with publishing, whether it be illustrations for children's books or fancy websites, posters, flyers, cartoons... etc. and also with computers and the Web. From 2004 to 2013 I lived in Toronto and I am now in Montreal.
For more than 10 years I almost exclusively did figure and portrait. That has allowed me to put drawing "behind" me – and it is now an almost effortless thing for me to draw, it comes naturally and I feel totally confident doing it. Drawing is at the root of my art so now I can explore anything I want, which explains the explosion of subjects in my paintings in the last 5 years.
Exhibitions
March 2014 at L'Espace Contemporain, Montreal (group exhibition);
June 2012 at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto (group exhibition);
February 2007 at the Galerie Céline Allard, Centre Francophone de Toronto (solo exhibition);
October 2005 at the Galerie Céline Allard, Centre Francophone de Toronto (group exhibition);
October 2004 at the Galerie Céline Allard, Centre Francophone de Toronto (solo exhibition);
September 2000 at the Café des 4 Jeudis, in Hull (solo exhibition).