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COLOUR OUTSIDE THE BOX - PEINDRE HORS DES LIMITES

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    English Version - *version française dessous* COLOUR OUTSIDE THE BOX I first expressed an interest in painting during the 1988 Christmas holidays.   I was leafing through a book on the Courtaulds Impressionist collection.   I had gone through this book before, but this time, when I saw paintings by Degas and Monet, something moved within me.   It was a particularly stressful time in my life, and said perhaps I’d like to try and paint.   So that was my Christmas gift!   A small oil painting set with a cardboard canvas along with instructions on how to start painting.   A few months later, I opened my gift and started to paint. I followed the detailed instructions in the booklet.   To be frank, it was almost like painting by numbers!   But I was hooked!   I had no sense of time and got lost in the painting.   In the following years, I copied (or try to copy LOL!) many of the most famous paintings the impressionists gave us.   I experimented with pastels, acrylics and mixed
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“I CAN DO THIS” - « JE PEUX LE FAIRE »

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   English Version - *version française dessous* “I CAN DO THIS” I was a slow learner, usually finishing at the bottom of my school class.  I did enjoy history and strangely enough, Latin, but even then, my marks were mediocre.  As a consequence, I didn’t have a lot of self confidence.  I moved to Ireland when I was 23 to manage a start-up jewellery manufacturing business.  By then, I knew how to make jewellery in a factory but had little experience in any other aspects of business.  It was literally a sink or swim moment for me! But I wanted to learn.  I remember trying to read a balance sheet and understand how material consumption worked (+ opening inventory + purchases - closing inventory = material consumption) and the most difficult of all, working out the Statement of Changes for cash flow.   I spent countless hours mapping out how this worked.     But the most important thing I came to realize was I loved to learn… I just hated to be taught .  Once I understood thi
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BEST OF MONTREAL 2024 - MEILLEUR DE MONTRÉAL 2024

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   English Version - *version française dessous*   BEST OF MONTREAL CONTEST 2024 A couple of years ago, The Suburban Newspaper ( https://www.thesuburban.com ) launched its “Best of Montreal” contest ( https://www.bestofmtl.com ).   Businesses all over the Montreal area were nominated in different categories and readers and supporters could then vote for their favourite enterprise during the month of October.  Results were tabulated and the top three winners in each category were announced in January of the following year.   “Art Gallery” fell into the “Things to Do” category.  Galerie Peter W Hart Gallery was one of the nominees and we ended up winning the category!  You can imagine how proud all of us were when we heard the news that we    were named the best art gallery in Montreal!  It would never have happened without my wife Francine and her hard working Team.  They try and make every visitor feel welcomed regardless of whether they buy a painting or not.   I’m pleased to say that
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J.M. W. TURNER MAKES ME WONDER - J.M. W. TURNER ME FAIT RÉFLÉCHIR

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  English Version - *version française dessous* J.M. W. TURNER MAKES ME WONDER Samuel Courtauld was a British industrialist who started collecting Impressionist art in the early 1900s.  The Courtauld Collection resides at Somerset House in London and I encourage you to visit if you ever pass through that great city ( https://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery ).   The paintings from the Courtauld Collection inspired me to start painting in 1989. More specifically, Degas and Monet were the first two artists that moved me to start painting. Later, I learned about Renoir, Manet, Pissarro, Cassatt and other wonderful Impressionists.  It was fun to learn about their lives and the dynamic relationships they had with each other.   A few years later I discovered the British artist J.M.W. Turner.  His seascapes really moved me.  He passed away in 1851 well before Impressionism became a movement and after studying his work, I have long wondered whether Turner was the true father of the Impression
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WORDS AND PAINTINGS - MOTS ET PEINTURES

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English Version - *version française dessous* WORDS & PAINTINGS I moved to Ireland when I was 23 years old.   My parents had gone into a joint venture with a company based in Providence, Rhode Island and another from Toronto, Ontario.  The joint venture was going to take advantage of a program created by the Government of Ireland to develop the Irish economy.  It was run by the Irish Development Authority or IDA ( https://www.idaireland.com ).  The new company was going to manufacture high end costume jewellery for the European market. Mom and Dad “volunteered” me to run it.  I thought they were crazy.  By that time, I knew how to run a factory but had no sense about running an entire business. When I said this, Dad simply replied “you’ll learn”!   Now, fifty years later, I realize my time in Ireland defined me and set me on the course for who I would become and I’m eternally grateful to my parents for the opportunity they gave me.   One of the things I decided to do in
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BEST OF MONTREAL 2024 - MEILLEUR DE MONTRÉAL 2024

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  English Version - *version française dessous*   BEST OF MONTREAL CONTEST 2024 A couple of years ago, The Suburban Newspaper ( https://www.thesuburban.com ) launched its “Best of Montreal” contest ( https://www.bestofmtl.com ).   Businesses all over the Montreal area were nominated in different categories and readers and supporters could then vote for their favourite enterprise during the month of October.  Results were tabulated and the top three winners in each category were announced in January of the following year.   “Art Gallery” fell into the “Things to Do” category.  Galerie Peter W Hart Gallery was one of the nominees and we ended up winning the category!  You can imagine how proud all of us were when we heard the news that we   were named the best art gallery in Montreal!  It would never have happened without my wife Francine and her hard working Team.  They try and make every visitor feel welcomed regardless of whether they buy a painting or not.   I’m pleased to
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THE MUSICAL ESSENTIAL - L'ESSENTIEL MUSICAL

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  English Version - *version française dessous* THE MUSICAL ESSENTIAL There is one thing that is absolutely essential when I paint… music.  Music lifts me up and inspires me to paint.   When I moved to my new studio in 2020, I had to be careful about my music’s volume.  If it was too loud it interfered with the gallery’s own sound system.   So, we reached a happy compromise…  I turned down the volume on the system in my studio which plays all the time and bought a high end set of headphones connected to my iPhone whereby I can play my music as loud as I want. Music makes me happy, and I love ALL types of music.  Over the years I have created many different playlists, and they often determine what I paint.  Sometimes, you can see the music in my paintings, and I ask visitors if they can see what I was hearing.   Lately, I have been naming some of my art after the songs or albums which influenced the finished painting, and I add a clef note beside the title on the back of
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