Artist Statement:
I am a Toronto‑based abstract artist working primarily in acrylic and mixed media on canvas. My path as an artist began not with dolls or tea sets, but with a primal need for books, paper, and coloured pencils. And as a child I spenting hours watching how floral colours dissolved into shadow, something that still influences my art today.
My paintings emerge from the contradictions of daily life, where clarity and ambiguity constantly overlap. I am drawn to the tension between deliberate structure and intuitive mark‑making, often investigating the push-and-pull between rigid geometric frameworks and fluid, organic abstraction.
This interplay reflects the rhythms of life layered over early memories, uncovering a visual language shaped by internal landscapes rather than external expectations. Materials accumulate, obscure, and reveal; layers shift like memory, holding what is carried, what is released, and what quietly lingers. I was born in Trinidad, raised in Canada and these weathered, atmospheric surfaces mirror the shifting nature of memory and belonging. Through a visual archaeology that uncovers and obscures in equal measure, each canvas gives form to lived experiences that resist direct articulation, inviting the viewer into a contemplative, open space.
BIO:
Annette Courtemanche is a Toronto-based abstract painter whose practice leans into an intuitive approach to the canvas. This is supported by an academic foundation, including an Honours B.A. Specialist in English and Canadian Studies (University of Toronto) and art history studies under the late Dennis Reid, CM, and Professor Elizabeth Legge. This bridge between a self-taught technical practice and a scholarly understanding of Canadian painting and Dada/Surrealism informs her layered, investigative approach to abstraction. After years of commission-driven work, she now devotes her full-time practice to large-format, material-led explorations where the boundaries between memory and abstraction dissolve into immersive, textured environments.
Professional Experience
I am a Toronto‑based abstract artist working primarily in acrylic and mixed media on canvas. My path as an artist began not with dolls or tea sets, but with a primal need for books, paper, and coloured pencils. And as a child I spenting hours watching how floral colours dissolved into shadow, something that still influences my art today.
My paintings emerge from the contradictions of daily life, where clarity and ambiguity constantly overlap. I am drawn to the tension between deliberate structure and intuitive mark‑making, often investigating the push-and-pull between rigid geometric frameworks and fluid, organic abstraction.
This interplay reflects the rhythms of life layered over early memories, uncovering a visual language shaped by internal landscapes rather than external expectations. Materials accumulate, obscure, and reveal; layers shift like memory, holding what is carried, what is released, and what quietly lingers. I was born in Trinidad, raised in Canada and these weathered, atmospheric surfaces mirror the shifting nature of memory and belonging. Through a visual archaeology that uncovers and obscures in equal measure, each canvas gives form to lived experiences that resist direct articulation, inviting the viewer into a contemplative, open space.
BIO:
Annette Courtemanche is a Toronto-based abstract painter whose practice leans into an intuitive approach to the canvas. This is supported by an academic foundation, including an Honours B.A. Specialist in English and Canadian Studies (University of Toronto) and art history studies under the late Dennis Reid, CM, and Professor Elizabeth Legge. This bridge between a self-taught technical practice and a scholarly understanding of Canadian painting and Dada/Surrealism informs her layered, investigative approach to abstraction. After years of commission-driven work, she now devotes her full-time practice to large-format, material-led explorations where the boundaries between memory and abstraction dissolve into immersive, textured environments.
Professional Experience
- 2022 – Present | Home Studio Practice | Toronto, ON: Specializing in custom abstract commissions and client-driven mixed media projects.
- 2025 – Present | Full-Time Artist Transition: Exploration of a large‑format, structural expressionist language shaped through material‑driven processes (parchment, gesso, and heavy texture)
- 2026 -- (Upcoming) | Abstract Painter's Studio (10-week intensive course, Sept 29 – Dec 1) | Toronto School of Art
- 2025 — Chantel Proulx: Abstract Marks (self-directed/Online)
- 2023 — Michael Toke: Contemporary Painting — AGO, 5‑week in‑person workshop
- 2020 — Lori Mirabelli: Abstract Painting — 3‑weekly online workshop sessions
- Youngplace Art & Craft Fair Exhibit, Doors Open Toronto, Toronto, ON (May 23, 2026)
- Propeller Art Gallery, 'Intangible Experiences' Group Show (Mar 25-Apr 12, 2026) Juried
- Leslie Grove Gallery, 'You Do You' Group Show (Jan 28-Mar 1, 2026) Invited
- Propeller Art Gallery, 'Eureka!' Mixed Media Group Show (Feb 11-Mar 1, 2026) Juried
- Leslie Grove Gallery, 'Think Pink' Colour Show (Jan 7-Jan 25, 2026) Juried
- Leslie Grove Gallery, Holiday Smalls, (Nov 26, 2025-Jan 4, 2026) Juried
- Propeller Art Gallery, 'Studio 19’ Group Show (Aug 20-Sept 7, 2025) Invited
- Art a la Carte, legislative Assembly of Ontario (Jan-Dec 2025) Juried
- Leslie Grove Gallery, (Dec 4, 2024-Jan 5 2025) Juried
- Tarragon Theatre Lobby Gallery, (Nov-Dec 2024) Juried
- Art Gallery of Ontario, “Portraits of Reliance” (June-August 2022)
- Leslie Grove gallery/Artist Network
- A Space Gallery, Toronto, ON
- Artwork exhibited for a full year (2025) at Art à la Carte, Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
- Large-scale work Transition featured in the Tarragon Theatre Lobby Gallery for the opening of CRAZE (2024).
- Artwork featured in Partial: Curator’s Club Journal, State of Change: Canadian Art and Transitional Design. (Link)