Claude J. Millette                          OIL AND PASTELS

I am a 56 year old family therapist.  While I did one year of university training in the visual arts in 1975, I left it to concentrate in psychology, later to become a Social Worker with a specialty in Family Therapy. I did however continue to draw and sketch throughout my adult life.

In 2006, my life partner died of suicide after a longstanding struggle with Bipolar Depression.  I was emotionally destroyed and it took 4 years for me to regain a semblance of who I am.  My wife painted in watercolors and I enjoyed watching her transform an idea into a painting. 

In 2007, I started to doodle with some of her oil pastels left around the  house.  Doodling gave way to sketching in soft pastels and this led to painting in pastel. I discovered how the interplay between light and dark gives shape to objects and how light is the basis for the color that we see.  This contrast of light and dark is the ongoing subject of my paintings. 

This site provides a visual chronicle of my recovery.  It displays my struggles with the duality of light and dark and my discovery that there is color out there.

I hope you enjoy.  Welcome to my journey.