Claude J. Millette                          OIL AND PASTELS

BIOGRAPHY

 

      Millette, who is also a family therapist, learned to paint from watching his wife at work in their Oakville home. After her death he began experimenting with pastels as a means to integrate her into his life. “Darkness is always present, lurking in the shadows and defining the shapes of my brush,” says Millette. “Yet I try to capture how sunlight paints the forest and trees.” Millette’s landscapes are textually rich, organic, emotionally complex, and ultimately uplifting. “My life has become about capturing the colour of light – and no longer about escaping the darkness of my night. “

 

     Self-taught as a pastelist, Millette decided to display his work for the first time in 2011 at Neilson Park Creative Centre. The interest displayed towards his work led to three other exhibitions during this first year.  In 2013, Millette moved frompastel to paint in oils.  His concern remains on exploring the way light illuminates the landscape drawing shapes and form from the darkness and expressing the range of emotions through color.
 

ARTIST STATEMENT

 

         Millette’s dark and beautiful soft pastels tell the story of an emotional and artistic journey from grief to solace. After the death of his beloved wife, in 2006, Millette was left to come to terms with his profound loss. The result is a remarkable emotional journey, a captivating interplay between darkness and light. Despair lies just beneath the surface of Millette’s landscapes, yet there is a poetic beauty that holds the eye inviting meditation on the simplest things. Snow illuminates a barren branch in a city garden, an expanse of meadow portends spring, an open gate suggests the movement of time and winter twilight warms a granite face set against a stark northern sky. Does dark shadow light, or light open up dark? Mysterious and mesmerizing, Millette’s paintings invite the viewer to linger in the space that opens up in the heart when we take time to look deeply.

        Millette painting represents a departure from the preoccupation with the cityscape and it's various manifestations.  Millette dares to explore the deep emotional connection with nature not just as a subject to be consummed but as a place to embrace and experience. A listing of the titles of his solo shows;  The Color of My Darkness, It Isn't Easy Being Green, Contrast in Nature- Explorations in Pastel and Water, reveal this preoccupation with our connection with nature.  As climate change bring about a shift in our relationship to nature, each one of us will be called upon to reflect on our own connection with the planet. 

     Painting requires silencing of our inner dialogue to be able to really see the world of colors and shapes that surround us. It is being in an active state of amazement.  It is this passion that Millette shares with all landscape and plein air painters.