The Art Lover's Guide to Collecting Fine Art in Canada

Our neighbors to the north have boundless inspiration to create—while the metropolitan cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal are filled with bustling energy, they still hold with them the allure of the Canadian outdoors. Generally speaking, the country as a whole is sparsely populated, with forest and tundra making up most of the land across its 10 provinces.

A skip and a hop from New York City is the eastern city of Toronto, Ontario, where visitors can experience a diverse art scene, from historic art museums to modern street art while strolling down the city streets. One of the largest art museums in North America is the Art Gallery of Ontario, which houses a collection of nearly 95,000 works of historic and contemporary Canadian art, modern American and European art, Indigenous art, photography and more. The Royal Ontario Museum is Canada’s largest and most comprehensive museum, housing a collection of 13 million artworks, cultural objects and natural history specimens across 40 gallery and exhibition spaces. Also in Toronto is the annual Artfest Toronto held every September in the city’s Distillery District, a curated show featuring 80 artists from across Ontario, Québec and beyond.An aerial view of Québec City in winter. Photo by Jean-François Bergeron, Enviro Foto.Primarily a French-speaking province, Québec is rich with culture, and Montréal is the largest city there. In addition to institutions like the Contemporary Art Museum of Montréal and The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, art admirers can explore the Montréal Art Centre, a haven for art in vibrant and cutting-edge Griffintown district. The Centre offers space for up to 100 resident artists to create original works in 65 studio spaces, which are then exhibited from their open personal studios, as well as in the Centre’s two public galleries: the Griffintown Gallery on the second floor and the William Street Gallery on the first floor. Less than 10 miles west is Galerie Richelieu, representing historic and contemporary artists from Québec, North America and around the world.

Clear across the other side of the country on the western half is Calgary, Alberta, where one of the most anticipated Western art events takes place each year: the Calgary Stampede, running next year from July 3 to 12. The city is also filled to the brim with contemporary art institutions for visitors to take in and enjoy, including the Institute of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of Calgary.

Throughout this destination guide, collectors can learn about a variety of other artists and institutions that call Canada home, including Francois Chartier, Joyce Fournier, Cindy Sorley-Keichinger, Rémi LaBarre, Terracana Ranch Resort and LJL Galleries.

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Cindy Sorley-Keichinger, Sunning, acrylic, 8 x 8"

Cindy Sorley-Keichinger
(780) 847-2294, goldfarm@telusplanet.net
www.goldenkstudio.com
Picture This Gallery
959 Ordze Road, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CA
(800) 528-4278
www.picturethisgallery.com

Cindy Sorley-Keichinger is represented by Picture This Gallery, which carries artwork of all genres from many well-known and not so well-known artists of quality. Cindy Sorley-Keichinger, Contested, acrylic, 24 x 18"

Cindy Sorley-Keichinger, Hogsback Falls, acrylic, 17 x 42"

Sorley-Keichinger’s art is included in the American Artists Professional League’s 91st Grand National Exhibition in New York at the Salmagundi Club running through November 22. This is one of the artist’s favorite shows to enter. Other shows she enjoys are the Artists for Conservation show in September and the Society of Animal Artists show because the focus is on wildlife, her favorite subject matter to paint. While Sorley-Keichinger approaches her nature paintings through research and reference photos taken during her travels, the final product comes from the artistic vision within her own mind.

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An outside view of LJL Galleries in Stony Plain, Alberta.LJL Galleries
Stony Plain, AB
(780) 963-9292 sales@ljlgalleries
www.ljlgalleries.com

The grand opening of its new physical location, LJL Galleries is the premium venue for international award-winning artist Lisa J Levasseur, creator of PaletteArt, representing acclaimed Canadian artists Doris McCarthy and Roy Leadbetter, as well as internationally recognized artists Joshua Smith and Michael Lam, among others.A view of the riverside cabins at Terracana Ranch Resort, where the Rocky Mountain Art Tour takes place.Recently, the gallery has added Canadian artists Robert McAffee and Brigitte Granton. LJL Galleries’ primary focus is to promote and sell fine art through its online platform and generate sales that allow it to donate to different charities, offering a high percentage of revenues for donations and tax receipts for art buyers.Beautiful views can be taken in during the Rocky Mountain Art Tour.LJL Galleries is curating and organizing the Rocky Mountain Art Tour at Terracana Ranch Resort in 2020. This will include not only visiting artists’ studios as in previous years, but will also display Canadian artwork throughout a selection of 10 hotels in Banff and Jasper national parks. The goal is to gather art enthusiasts from across the world to discover and appreciate Canadian heritage and give Canadian artists the opportunity to be seen, promoted and featured.

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Joyce Fournier, Contemplation, bronze with granite base, ed. of 10, 10 x 4½ x 3 2/5"

Joyce Fournier
Toronto, ON, (416) 705-9640
jfournierart@gmail.com
www.fournierart.com

“For me, my passion for sculpting and painting is what gets me up in the morning. Having considered myself an artist since childhood, I first worked in healthcare and then industry for many years before deciding to focus on art full time,” says sculptor and painter Joyce Fournier.Joyce Fournier, Thinking in Red, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24"

“I started with landscape painting using oil in the early ’90s, moved to portraits and figurative works using oil and dry media some years later, and then morphed into abstract expressionism using acrylic about five years ago. During this last transition I found myself venturing into figurative sculpting not only as a way of peaceful distraction, but as a way of maintaining all I had learned in my prior years of academic art training. By sculpting I am able to further my interest in the figure while at the same time explore the excitement and spontaneity of abstract painting. The two activities are complete opposites and complementary,” the artist continues. “Sculpting for me is a methodical and technical process, whereas I find abstract expressionist painting to be more of a full-bodied gestural experience. I have been told that it is truly unique to exhibit both my sculptures and abstract paintings together at art fairs. The combination of the two genres makes for a great conversation piece in itself. One would not expect the same person to have created both, but it works.”Joyce Fournier, Female Torso, bronze, ed. of 10, 4½ x 3 x 2½"Over the last 12 years, Fournier has exhibited in solo and group shows within Canada and internationally. Her work is found in private collections in Canada, the United States and Europe. Fournier is represented by Steidel Fine Art with whom she will be showcasing some of her new paintings at Red Dot Miami in December.

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François Chartier’s paintings at Galerie Richelieu.Galerie Richelieu
7903 Saint-Denis Street
Montréal, QC, H2R 2G2
(514) 381-2247
www.galerierichelieu.com

With an outstanding setting where masters such as Jean-Paul Riopelle, Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Clarence Gagnon and Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté mix with present-day artists, Galerie Richelieu is a select showcase for Quebec art. Founded some 20 years ago, the gallery has spread its reputation beyond Canada. With its wide range and notable originality of artwork, as well as of the superior quality of the services offered by Colette Richelieu and her team, Galerie Richelieu is a prominent art space in the region. Galerie Richelieu, Stardust, mixed media, 20 x 20", by Céline Brossard.

Photorealism artist François Chartier can easily spend three months to achieve a work on canvas where creativity and attention to detail combine. Working on oversized canvases to render his larger-than-life subjects, the objects he paints are magnified, as if seen through a lens. His goal is to captivate viewers and make them look at something familiar from an entirely new angle, with the smaller details revealed in their unique beauty and simplicity. His work is presented at Galerie Richelieu alongside artists such as Léa Rivière, Charles Carson and Céline Brossard, among many others.

Galerie Richelieu, À dire vrai, la vie, mixed media, 60 x 48", by Léa Rivière.

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Rémi LaBarre, Has anyone seen my muse, acrylic, 24 x 26"

Rémi LaBarre
Montreal, Canada
info@remilabarre.com
www.remilabarre.com

Self-taught artist Rémi LaBarre tells emotionally charged stories through his portraits and still life paintings. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, LaBarre is influenced by the work of artists such as John Singer Sargent and Richard Schmid, but by far, his greatest passion is music. This is what fuels his creativity and his artistic practice most. Rémi LaBarre, Leonard Cohen – golden voice, acrylic, 30 x 20"

“I love live music and I have seen so many shows,” says LaBarre. “My favorite jazz club in Montreal is House of Jazz. Over the years, I have seen live musicians performing in places like Preservation Hall in New Orleans, Ryman Auditorium and Blue Bird Café in Nashville, an old dance hall and a gospel church in Texas, an open mic in Austin, a cabaret in New York [and many more]…and I have my airplane ticket for some blues in Chicago!”

While the artist himself is not a musician, he explains that whenever he needs a bit of inspiration to pick up the brush and begin painting, “I just put Leonard Cohen’s music on.”Rémi LaBarre, Double bass player, acrylic, 36 x 24"