A word from the artist

Thank you so much for visiting my web site. I hope you enjoyed my art work as much as I have enjoyed creating them.  Please feel free to visit from time to time as I update my website with new pieces that I will be creating in various mediums. In the near future, I will be adding a daily blog so that you can continue to keep in touch and see how my career as an artist is expanding. Also I will be adding pay pal to my website to make it easier to purchase any of my artwork. I would appreciate if you could take the time to e-mail me as to how you found out about my site.

Now a bit about myself. As far as I can remember I have enjoyed doing art work and my mother always encouraged me to keep at it. When I got older I took some art classes at my high school in  Timmins. After graduating in 1979, I attended college in Sault Saint Marie and majored in advertising art with a minor in photography and painting @ Sault college. This was a 3 year program that I graduated with honours in 1982. My first art show was a group show called “On The Edge”. This was a graduating art show with the students showing one or two of their favorite pieces of art.

In 1984 I had my first solo art exhibit at La Galeruche in Timmins. This was a multi media show with mediums such as acrylic, watercolour, pen and ink, pencil and photography. The show was critique by a panel and was funded in part by the Ontario Art Council. The judges  comments were positive and they encouraged me to continue in the medium of pen and ink.

In May, 1986 I had another showing at La Galeruche which was exclusively done in pen and ink This was a very successful show because not only did I get funding from the Ontario Arts Council but I had many sales and compliments. I was very honoured by having the prime minister of Canada; Brian Mulroney and his family attend this exhibit. In August, 1986 I was invited by the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines to display my art work at the Northern Ontario North Now Pavilion, Ontario Place, Toronto. This was the beginning of a very rewarding career and I was invited yearly to display my art and techniques until the closing of the Ontario North Now Pavilion. in 1992.

From 1992 to present I started displaying my art in smaller northern communities. The town of Chapleau was the first and a big hit . Here I exhibited at the Louis Hemond centre. The people were so impressed that they invited me back to do a weekend workshop in pen and ink. Then I displayed in Kapuskasing at the Galerie Paquin The attendance was remarkable and after the show I was invited to come back to attend their craft show.   One of the other small communities that I exposed in was at Galerie 912 located in Hearst.

In October 1995, I decided to return for a showing at la Galeruche. This turned out to be a stressful time since I was also working on forest fires it was very hard to get organized. In September I had a exhibit at the centre Louis Edmond.  I had one final show in Kapuskasing and decided that would be it for a while since my grandmother was gravely ill with cancer.

In 1997 my new career as a paramedic used most my time resulting in my art being put on hold until 2003, when I exhibited my art work at the Timmins and District Hospital promenade. This sparked my art juices and got me to start producing again. Finally in 2006, I returned to La Galeruche in Timmins to display my latest works created in acrylic, water colour and pen and ink.

In closing I would like to thank you again for taking the time to visit my website and hope you will come again soon.

Robert Simoneau.