about
I am a Montreal artist, writer, cook and vegetable gardener who moves with the seasons between Montreal and Vermont. In life, as in art, I find sparks of inspiration in everyday places and things: the hills and valleys of an unmade bed, a tangled row of tomato vines, the glow of neon signs at the dépanneur, a bowl of just-picked cherries, the graceful curves of a hayfield, a steaming bowl of pho soup in Chinatown.
My art comes in a few guises: mosaic, mixed-media collage, illustrations, photography.
I began life as an artist using oil paints, but a trip to Barcelona introduced me to the wild and whimsical mosaics of the modernist Catalan architect and artist Antoni Gaudi. I first studied mosaics at Suzanne Spahi’s Mosaikashop school in Montreal and later attended Luciana Notturni’s Mosaic Art School in Ravenna, Italy.
Next came the illustrations. It started with a few pencil scribbles, followed by continuous-line ink drawings. Then I received a set of Japanese watercolours, like a box of brilliant chocolates, and added colour to the simple, graphic shapes and forms. Collage is my newest language. I've been collecting rolls and snippets of paper in my travels. Now their colours, patterns and textures have found a way into my works, along with the cut-up pages of decommissioned dictionaries and the zigzag edges of paper bags.
My work has been exhibited in numerous gallery shows in Montreal and Vermont and it appears in private and corporate collections in Montreal, Toronto, England and Italy. And I was recently invited to become a member of the Lakeshore Artists Association, an organization which holds group shows twice annually and meets regularly so that members can exchange ideas and inspiration.
When I’m not in the studio, I’m at work as a food writer and teacher. My most recent cookbook Montreal l’hiver (Editions Cardinal) was published in November 2018. Before that, I wrote Market Chronicles, a book of recipes, stories and illustrations from Montreal’s beloved Jean Talon Market. Along the way, my writing has appeared in The Montreal Gazette, where I worked for a long time as a feature writer, and in the Toronto Star and Montreal Home and Organic Gardening magazines.
Otherwise, you'll find me in the kitchen or in the vegetable garden with the birds and the bugs, planting pea seeds or trying to tame the overgrown zucchini.
Or else I'm out exploring: on an urban adventure in one of Montreal's vibrant, storied neighbourhoods, or in the woods in Vermont, collecting rocks and twigs or foraging for wild leeks, berries or chanterelles.
My art comes in a few guises: mosaic, mixed-media collage, illustrations, photography.
I began life as an artist using oil paints, but a trip to Barcelona introduced me to the wild and whimsical mosaics of the modernist Catalan architect and artist Antoni Gaudi. I first studied mosaics at Suzanne Spahi’s Mosaikashop school in Montreal and later attended Luciana Notturni’s Mosaic Art School in Ravenna, Italy.
Next came the illustrations. It started with a few pencil scribbles, followed by continuous-line ink drawings. Then I received a set of Japanese watercolours, like a box of brilliant chocolates, and added colour to the simple, graphic shapes and forms. Collage is my newest language. I've been collecting rolls and snippets of paper in my travels. Now their colours, patterns and textures have found a way into my works, along with the cut-up pages of decommissioned dictionaries and the zigzag edges of paper bags.
My work has been exhibited in numerous gallery shows in Montreal and Vermont and it appears in private and corporate collections in Montreal, Toronto, England and Italy. And I was recently invited to become a member of the Lakeshore Artists Association, an organization which holds group shows twice annually and meets regularly so that members can exchange ideas and inspiration.
When I’m not in the studio, I’m at work as a food writer and teacher. My most recent cookbook Montreal l’hiver (Editions Cardinal) was published in November 2018. Before that, I wrote Market Chronicles, a book of recipes, stories and illustrations from Montreal’s beloved Jean Talon Market. Along the way, my writing has appeared in The Montreal Gazette, where I worked for a long time as a feature writer, and in the Toronto Star and Montreal Home and Organic Gardening magazines.
Otherwise, you'll find me in the kitchen or in the vegetable garden with the birds and the bugs, planting pea seeds or trying to tame the overgrown zucchini.
Or else I'm out exploring: on an urban adventure in one of Montreal's vibrant, storied neighbourhoods, or in the woods in Vermont, collecting rocks and twigs or foraging for wild leeks, berries or chanterelles.
Here's a story about my art work from the Montreal Gazette, Montreal's English language daily newspaper. Click on the photo below, by John Mahoney, to view the article:
