About Me

I am a pastel artist living in Stratford, Ontario.

I have always had a fascination with art, and as a teenager I dreamed of becoming an artist. However, I followed what I felt was a practical path into the healthcare field, and graduated college as a pharmacy technician. During my 35-year career in hospital pharmacy, I dabbled in drawing and painting in my spare time.  Once my two wonderful boys came along though, my art activities happily shifted to enjoying cut and paste, finger painting and other kid’s crafts with them.

Fast forward 27 years and suddenly I had more time to devote to my interest in art. I enrolled at Sheridan College of Art and Design in 2013 and graduated from the Fine Arts Certificate program with high honors in 2015. My first encounter with using pastel was at Sheridan and it was love at first touch! The soft buttery feel and luscious colours of the pigment had me hooked on this wonderful medium!

 I retired from hospital pharmacy in 2016 and relocated to Stratford, Ontario to persue my dream of working as an artist full time. Stratford is surrounded by farmland and that, in addition to the Avon River, Lake Victoria and woodland trails provide ample inspiration for painting the local landscape either on location or in my home studio. 

I paint subjects that I find a connection to. This allows me to truly enjoy the process of painting my impression of the landscape, still life, pet or people portraits - and therefore life. Far too often our day to day lives keep us so busy that we do not always see the beauty that surrounds us. I strive to capture the light, colour and atmosphere of the landscape and the realism of unique still life arrangements for you to enjoy.

My goal with painting what moves me, is to evoke an emotion in the viewer. When a viewer connects with my work and finds that it has the ability to stir within them a memory, meaning, a smile or a dream, then I have accomplished this goal. 

~ Denise