Au Grand Vent

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Painting is the means by which I fulfill my eternal need to capture the ephemeral, to preserve what makes me dream: relative beauty!” – Martin Blanchet

BIOGRAPHY

Born 1972 in St-Emile-de-Suffolk, Québec, Canada. Martin Blanchet is a self-taught painter who has trained with painters Louis Boekhout and Louis Robichaud. Inspired by nature and wildlife, Blanchet sketches “en plein air” in the natural environment. His atmospheric treatment of the landscape through soft and visible brush marks accurately capture his three-dimensional environment on canvas. Both his painterly style and choice of subject matter, pastoral landscapes and scenes of industrialization are reminiscent of the Realist and early Impressionist artists of the 1800s who were stimulated by the modernization of Europe’s capital cities to capture the sensation of modernity through hurried brushstrokes and scenes of everyday life.

“By not looking for a style, Martin Blanchet found his own. Integrity and honesty, along with his boundless love for his land, allow him to paint just like he breathes. Like the old masters, many say. I think they’re right, if this means his qualities are those of the Greats. But his painting is definitely current. In these times of major planetary decisions, Nature needs ambassadors more than ever before, and I cant think of anyone better suited.” – Jean-Louis Courteau, “Martin Blanchet: Saisir l’invisible,” (2008), 39.