Marcel Renaud

Retirement was the event that triggered a desire to release my creativity through painting, where the constraint of work and time were gone. The hardest point in starting my artistic journey was picking up a paintbrush and convincing myself that I could create a work of art that I would be pleased with. Every time I pick up a paintbrush there is the fear of not being able to perform.

I paint to escape, to express and to challenge myself. I paint to reflect the feelings and emotions of the moment. Creating an artwork, for me, is a combination of spontaneous decisions performed in a short timeframe, involving conscious and subconscious thoughts, my values, likes and dislikes, visual perspectives, application choices, colour selections and body movements. For each piece, decisions are made intuitively until such time as I feel that the work is complete. My art is a statement to myself, of personal satisfaction, of fulfillment and well-being. For me being artistic is innovating, experimenting, learning and changing.

I find that painting techniques are limited only by one's ingenuity. I use tools such as putty knives, brushes, fingers, wax paper, tape, paper, cardboard, cloth, bottle caps, scrapers, wood, ropes... to apply and man...

Marcel Renaud
The Substance of Abstraction
Agora Gallery
New York
January 16 - February 5, 2013
Press Release
With a strong sense of freedom and spontaneity, Canadian artist Marcel Renaud moves between artistic styles as his inspiration takes him, creating his unique “intuitive art” with a variety of techniques. A mainly self-taught artist, Renaud’s preferred medium is oil paint on canvas or board applied with a wide range of improvised tools, including putty knives, ropes, bottle caps, and his own fingers. This expressive approach to abstraction has an appealing liberty at its core. Immersing himself into the colors and texture of his work, the artist submits fully to the creative process, capturing the essence of the moment.
Born in North Bay, Ontario and of French descent, Renaud received a degree in Commerce from the University of Ottawa and worked for thirty years as a Financial Officer for the Canadian Federal Public Service while pursuing his personal passion for art with the Ottawa School of Arts and the Sandy Hill Community Centre. Now retired, he lives and works from his studio in Pontiac, Quebec.