Portraits
Pat Cantin’s subject is abstract, semi-figurative. The artist works as much with oil, aerosol and acrylic in each of his paintings. Each medium brings a different essence to the work and allows us to go further in the expression of his art.
“I paint directly with my hands on the canvas. I like to feel the material slipping through my fingers and sculpting it afterwards, at my leisure. Through a tool like a brush or spatula doesn’t allow me to have total control over my gesture.”
The challenge is to feel the emotion of the character other than through facial features or direct expression. The viewer must do the exercise of looking elsewhere in the work to find his usual cues. The interpretation of the portrait is perceived very differently from person to person.
The chairs
The trace left on the objects of our environment is invisible but very real. Each of us unknowingly leave a piece of ourselves. I focus on the most common object of our lives; the metal chair, used everywhere and in all circumstances. We put many things on them, our body of course, but above all a load or even an emotional overload.
I demonstrate through my chairs that everyone has a direct impact on those around them. Every word, every gesture someone makes to another influence that we are. The chair here becomes a mediator to make us understand visually what the traces left by others on oneself can do, positively as negatively.
My installations and my works make palpable by our senses, the overload accumulated by these chairs. I make them talk, will you hear them?
