Losier “In the Garden” at Burlington Art Centre along with Moore, Pierce and Rankin.

By Pepper Parr

April 12, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

The sun is moving into Claudette Losier’s world.  An active artists since 2007 when she sold four paintings at the Jordan Station show she has three significant events in the next few months –and that for this artist is the start of turning things around.

Losier earns her core income as a still life model but the joy for her is her transfer technique, a form of photo based mono printing or mark making with an “abandonment to chance working your intuition”. “You can never recreate the same mark or image”, explains Losier.

Red poppies – part of Losier’s early work included in the current BAC show.

About a month ago Losier had one of her paintings bought by the Province of Ontario for their permanent collection.  Losier exhibited “Around the Bend” at the Women’s Art Association of Hamilton’s 118^th Annual Juried Show at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

Her most recent event is her participation in the Burlington Art Centre’s In the Garden exhibition,   where she will share space with Wayne Moore, Victoria Pearce and Susan Rankin around Victor Cicansky’s piece Garden Ruins from the BAC permanent collection.

Losier depicts meditative dreamlike flowers, while Moore highlights the structure of the plant. Pearce creates dramatic still life studies, and Rankin incorporates floral elements into her glass blown vases.  The exhibition runs April 12 – June 1, 2014.

Losier is truly one of those struggling artists – whose styles seem like they are all over the place.  Her recent City Scape series is doing well as is the different locations she is showing and teaching. 

Cityscapes – a new direction for artists Claudette Losier now sowing at the Burlington Art Centre.

During that 2012 event we met another artist and were mentioning the Losier work and were told that `the woman is really hard to manage – I once had to get a restraining order against her.”  Losier denies that ever happened but added – “if it adds to my character you can tell people that happened – but it didn’t.”

What impresses people when you meet Losier is her energy – she is all over the place; seldom finishes a sentence and will use whatever time you give her to show you every picture she ever painted.

Art is all over the place in the non-descript bungalow she shares with her husband and their cat “Monet” on the mountain in Hamilton.  Her husband gets some space in a back room where he does his financial work.

Part of the current event at the Burlington Art Centre required each artists to write a “statement”.  She explained that ask this way: “Friday night I tried to tackle my statement but the words would not come.  Saturday morning I was lying down staring at my third eye offering my little flowers of devotion to God when all of a sudden I started thinking of my statement and the thoughts were pouring out!  I wrote it!  Wow I was crying as I was writing thinking those thoughts that God was helping me write it – I believe so because it was effortless –  no struggle!” 

Expressive, always in motion and at times totally off the wall; an artist to keep an eye on.

There wasn’t a lot of money around the high school period home;  alcoholism pervaded the household and for a time Losier lived on student welfare

Applications to the Ontario College of Art and Design, University of Toronto and Brock University ended up with Losier doing a business administration program at Brock.

Earning  a living became the prime focus and for  seven years Losier  worked as an accounting clerk for a truck leasing company.  She did most of he own healing, grew as a feminist and found solace in her mother-in-laws garden – the home she now lives in.

The early art was focused on flowers and gardens.   Losier took part in a Jordan Station art show and sold four pieces at that event – “one was a 30×24 inch piece that I sold for $500” said Losier.  Flowers dominated her art from 2007 to 2012 when she began her Cityscape series.

Getting her hands on a digital camera opened creative doors for her.  Losier always photographs what she wants to paint first – the digital camera allowed her to distort an image. “My first pictures and as a result some of my early paintings s were blurry because I didn’t know how to focus the camera.”

Another break for Losier was being able to work with the Elaine Fleck Gallery and was invited to take part in a group show.  Losier however doesn’t wait for people to buy her art.  She is a very “in your face artist and will go wherever she has to go to have her art seen.

Losier has her art up on James Street at Lister Arts at Lister Block; at Humblepie, the Hamilton Store, and Centre3.

We are only seeing the beginning of Claudette Losier; this is an artist exploring, pushing boundaries and excited about every opportunity that sits there before her.  Someone to watch and worth buying  – now.