4Q Interview with Artist Nicole Tremblay.

 

 

 

 

Our featured artist for the 4Q Interview this

month is Nicole Tremblay of Shediac, New

Brunswick. We are very fortunate to have

such a talented artist as our guest. She

shares her home with her author partner

Warren Redman (aka Zev Bagel) and the two

have collaborated on collections of prints and

accompanying poems inspired by those

paintings.

 

 

 

Please tell us about yourself

and how long you have been

painting.

NT: I was born in Montreal in 1950 and am the youngest of 4 children. When I was 4 my mother took ill and I was sent to live with my grandparents in Upper-Caraquet (now Bertrand) for the better part of a year. I have fond memories of that time. After that, my sister and I spent most of our summers there. I am very proud to be half Acadian. I moved to Shediac in 2009. In the previous 30 years I had lived in Ottawa, Calgary, France, England and again Calgary. I have now thrown away my moving boxes.

I never in my dreams thought that I would one day call myself an artist. I have no professional training other than workshops I have attended over the years. I have always been attracted to vibrant colours and textures creating things with my hands (calligraphy, soap, candles, collages, dolls) and things that are different). In my mid-forties I started painting with watercolours on 4”x5” cards depicting fanciful fish and flowers. It is not until I discovered acrylic paints and inks mixed with collage that I felt I was home.

 

 

4Q: I have always wondered how a painter

finds inspiration or decides what to paint

next. How does it work for you?

NT: Rather than start with a plan, I apply textures (paper, cardboard, metal, sand etc.) and colours and let something emerge – turn the canvas 360˚ and see what’s there, if nothing I continue.  The beauty of acrylics is you can preserve what you like and cover what you do not to open new avenues. Someone recently told me this unknown (to me anyway) quote – too much details in a painting is an offense to the viewer’s intelligence – it’s probably why I very much like ‘abstract/impressionism’.

 

 

4Q: Please share a childhood memory or

anecdote.

NT:  An early example of my hands-on and -in approach.   I was probably 5 years old. On a hot summer day I was playing in my sandbox in our backyard when the little boy next door joined me. We were making ‘sand cakes’. I announced that we could do the ‘real thing’ and ran to the ice-box to get the container of molasses. It took my mother a rather long time and effort to hose us down from head to toe.

 

 

 

4Q: In addition to

shows and displays,

wherecan your art be

viewed and/or

purchased?And what

is in store for Nicole

Tremblay, the artist? 

NT: My studio is in our home in Shediac.  The paintings are displayed throughout the house. The studio itself is not usually open to the public for their safety and sanity.  I can only hope that in another life I will be blessed with the gift of orderliness. I am also at the Shediac Market every Sunday from June 19 to September 25 and the Allée des Artistes Friday evenings July and August.  What’s in store? Continue exploring my artistic style, who knows what else will emerge!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Nicole for sharing your thoughts.

And for your delightful paintings. This is
my favorite and I'm pleased to say I own it.

You can contact Nicole here for a viewing of her work and info on Le Village des Artistes  in July and The Shediac Studio Tour in September nicoletrem@gmail.com or 506-351-0645

 

Next week on the Scribbler you will meet Guest Author Janice Spina of Florida. An award winning author, she has published many children's books as well as adult fiction.

 

 

 

 

We would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment and your email address for a chance to win one of two copies of Dark Side of a Promise.