September’s Exhibit:

”Ocean Portraits” by Jaye Ouellette

Jaye Ouellette has been a professional autodidactic artist for almost 40 years.

In 2024 Jaye’s work was awarded semi-finalist from the International ARC salon prize. This is the most prestigious realism art competition in the world. Over 5,000 entries were submitted, from 87 countries. New Jersey.

In 2023 her work was profiled in a four page article in the acclaimed ‘International Artist Magazine’’ based in Arizona.

In 2022 Ouellette was invited to be an artist in residence at The Pouch Cove Foundation in NL, followed by the exhibition ‘Water’ at the James Baird Gallery, Pouch Cove.

Jaye’s work was selected for the ground breaking exhibition ‘Terroir: A Nova Scotia Survey’, 2016 - 2017, at The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax. The exhibition included 29 artists, she was one of only 8 painters.

She was also chosen for the exhibition ‘Capture: Nova Scotia Realism, 2015, which traveled the province for 2 years. In an interview co-curator Tom Smart said about Ouellette’s painting in the exhibition “The image is deep and metaphysical. It’s a glorious painting”.

Jaye has had six solo shows in public galleries in Nova Scotia.

Ouellette has exhibited her work many times, through galleries in Canada, the Us and France. Including six solo shows in Toronto. She has received many awards and honours. Ouellette’s work can be found in numerous corporate and private collections. Her commission work is extensive, most notably, the Skydome Hotel, now The Rogers Centre Toronto.

Artist’s Statement:

By constant observation, I strive to understand the Ocean's mysterious magnetism, eternally changing and yet forever the same. Water embodies the concept of endlessness, of complexities repeated from one drop to the vast sea, so powerful yet so very fragile.  Those fleeting traits impress only on memory. I paint the Ocean as the mind understands it – not a precise recording, nor the rendering of an impressionist's flourish, but something between the two. My work is built around those singular details, focusing on creating movement and luminosity. My depictions are purely of water, without land, sky or scale, one is lost, consumed, ensnared. The paintings capture a slice of time that the ocean will never again replicate. I notice these moments through visceral reflex. These are the elements that move me and compel me to depict the Ocean. I paint the sea itself, caught in its persistent motion, a meditative reflection on this ancient body, at times so violent and other times so serenely beautiful, that has birthed legend, tragedy, life.

-Jaye Ouellette