Raised in the Laurentian Mountains, north of Montreal, Josette Couillard grew up surrounded by the arts.Her father, Roger Couillard, was one of Canada's foremost poster artists of the Twentieth century.His posters of Canadian landscapes, Canadian Pacific Hotels and Canadian Pacific Railways remain as iconic images of the past century with their stylistic roots in art deco.
As a child, she travelled with her father extensively throughout Canada and Europe and was fortunate to spend time in some of the most important art galleries that they would encounter in their travels.Her perception of the rich vastness of the Canadian landscape, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean was developed during her travels with her father at this time.As her father would paint during their travels, a young Josette would take out her sketchpad and draw along, receiving kernels of advice as they travelled and painted together.
Josette hung out with many well known artists of the day and while accompanying one of them on a day of painting she did a painting of her own.To her amazement, she was told by her mother that it was a good painting and that was the beginning of her professional career.
As Josette began to paint, she quickly learned to take advantage of the vivid and vibrant colors she perceived in nature, highlighting the play of light and dark tones which sunlight or moonlight cast on each scene.She has never lost the naiveté and freshness that sets her work apart.The children that began to appear in her work were as lively as the landscapes themselves, their charm and innocence becoming a natural and integral part of her work.If you look closely, you may find a black cat hidden in most of her works.
Although she wishes that she had had more formal art training, you need only spend a few moments looking at her work to realize that formal art training is not always required.She has an innate sensibility for colour and design that gives a freshness and a style that is uniquely hers.In recent years she has passed this freshness on to many of her artistic friends helping them to become better and more popular artists.This fresh youthful exuberance that appears in her work has encouraged many youth organizations to seek out her work to help them in their fundraising events.UNICEF is one such organization that she assists and one that has done exceptionally well with sales of her artworks.
Josette recently took six years out of her artistic career to look after her mother but now she is back with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.She now has three grandchildren that have added another layer to her life and help her to see new things to paint.She is presently teaching all three of her grandchildren to paint so the artistic line continues.
You can't help but feel upbeat and cheerful when you stand in front of one of Josette's paintings.