Julien has always loved art from a young age. He started painting and drawing in kindergarten and primary school, attending different Waldorf schools in Ottawa ON. At these Waldorf schools he dabbled mostly in crayon drawing and watercolor. At the age of 12 he attended cartooning classes at the Ottawa School of Art. In 2014 he moved to Warsaw, Poland, where he kept taking art classes at The British School of Warsaw. He also had private watercolor painting classes taught by Paulina Kopestynska, a watercolor specialist. The combination of private tutoring and the British school's art classes led to Julien wanting to explore art in a deeper way.
In 2016 he started oil and acrylic painting on canvas, something he had never really done in the past. He felt these mediums could convey more feeling and from this point on he became fascinated and kept hobby painting.
In 2018 he then moved back to Ottawa ON, where he graduated high school, he then moved to Montreal to study in Fine Arts at Concordia University.
In 2021 Julien decided to take a sabbatical in order to create more freely and exhibit his art. Since then he has curated his first multimedia art exhibit which took place in december 2021.
Along with painting and creating, Julien now looks forward to managing and running LUUMI, an event production company he co-founded, focused on creating unique artistic experiences by showcasing and curating Art for the general public.
Bio
Julien Delannoy is a visual artist from Ottawa ON. He is currently based in Montreal QC, where he attends Concordia University studying Studio Arts. As an artist, Julien centers his work around material practice and routine, seeking subjective beauty through the repeated act of physically creating.
Artist statement
I am a Montreal based artist working in oil painting. My work is expressive, personal and explorative. I consider my work practice a discipline, finding solace in consistency and self betterment. As a colorist and dynamic painter, giving a canvas identity and beauty is what I strive for. With time, I let my canvas morph and change into its final rendition, reworking it and giving the painting time to evolve.
Technology permeates my practice, I make a conscious effort to film myself every time I paint. As a constantly watching apparatus, the camera is a motivational force, it lets me revisit my work while creating urgency by scrutinizing my every action. It forces me to be spontaneous and flexible with the mediums I use or mood I am in. A finished canvas of mine is a culmination of repeated studio sessions. What experiences or ideas I garner between each studio session thus influences my work since the direction of any given painting is never set in stone. I paint as if someone ordered me to make art, I then film myself to prove I did it, then I create process videos to provide evidence that I manifest the act of art making. In that regard, the creative process and practice of creating fleshes out my work and gives my canvases meaning and character.
The experiences, the people I meet and the things I do all influence my work. Themes like urbanism, nature, existentialism, dynamism or the passing of time often prevail in the final rendition of a pieces as a subtle presence. Although these kinds of themes are present in my work, the process, the act of painting and filming simultaneously are crucial in the development and meaning in my work. This makes the end result a moment in time, impossibly repeatable. (Or: impossible to repeat.)