Chris Charlebois has
always stayed true to his passion for nature.
This love for the environment and British Columbia landscape has been the focal point in his art since his
first painting 40 years ago, when his older sister handed the young Charlebois a few paints and a board. His
paintings today still mirror that first work of art.
Elena Kurbatoff, curator and owner of the Kurbatoff Gallery in Vancouver, says, “He’s a wonderful artist who
paints landscape, but landscape from within and you can see he’s very consistent in his style.”
“I try to express that primal desire to understand the environment and in a way to possess it,” says
Charlebois. His goal has always been to simply express this and he says “from nature I find direction.”
He is most inspired by the beauty of nature’s continuous cycle. “I look closely at a patch of land and see
the struggle — I focus on how certain growths are taking over broken and battered branches and their struggle
to survive.”
In his paintings, he focuses on gestures in nature through the dominant lines and movements in battered tree
branches, interesting weeds, a clump of grass or webby underbrush. “I look for something that is usually
passed by, but has so much beauty,” says Charlebois. “And I express it in infinite notes, harmonies, patterns
and rhythms.”
Kurbatoff explains that he shows a lot of expression in his paintings and that they’re more about mood.
“People purchase his work because of the thought and how the landscape seems like it was created just for
you,” she says.
While his devotion to painting landscape has remained the same, his technique hasn’t. Ten years ago,
Charlebois threw away his brushes and started painting with oil using palette knives, plastic forks and even
homemade tools depending on what he was trying to convey. He explains he doesn’t want the paint to be
compromised and that it allows you to have faith in your medium.
Because of this, his paintings are exceptionally one of a kind. Charlebois says, “Every painting I do there’s
going to be something different about it — the composition, the colours. It’s like a huge puzzle and
sometimes it’s a battle that I have to figure out and experiment with.”
Charlebois has displayed his work at the Kurbatoff Gallery since 2004. He describes Elena Kurbatoff and her
husband as “art lovers” who took a chance on him six years ago. His new exhibit featuring 15 to 20 new
paintings will take place from Nov. 17 to Dec. 1. “He’s very consistent but there’s always a little bit of
surprise with every exhibit,” says Kurbatoff.
Visit the Kurbatoff
Gallery at 2427 Granville St., Vancouver, B.C.
