Darlene Provost skillfully manages to inject emotion and passion into her work, choosing her brush strokes or layers carefully to reflect not only what she sees but how she feels. Her paintings make a powerful and immediate impact.

Darlene reveals that when she becomes immersed in painting while listening to music, she loses all sense of her surroundings. She feels calm, at peace and happy. Her art inspires her to constantly improve, to be kinder, to be a better listener. Painting provides a refuge and an escape. She enjoys the preparation, the selection of paints and colour palette that she will use, and reveals that the planning process often takes longer than the actual brush stokes.

She grew up in a family where painting, pottery and music were a shared passion. Her background and frame of reference were highly influenced by her mother and siblings. There was never a day without “art” on the table.

Darlene shares her time between her studios in Ottawa, Ontario and Dam Lake, Val Des Monts, Quebec. She also often lives on the idyllic island of Bequia in the Caribbean and travels extensively, gathering experiences from widely different environments. Her special commissions are cherished and form part of many private collections where she is recognized as an emerging contemporary artist.

She enhanced her love of design, colour and art by studying interior design, specializing in spacial visualization and colour interpretation. After graduating from Algonquin College in 1981, while pursuing a career in interior design, she realized that her true artistic expression was to be found in her paintings.
Darlene continued her exploration as an artist in Paris and Montreal and returned to Canada to pursue her art at Algonquin College, St. Lawrence College and at the Ottawa School of Art. These endeavours were followed by coaching and recognition from many celebrated artists, including Gordon Harrison, famed for his spectacular Canadian landscapes.

When discussing her contemporary landscape and floral collection, exhibited at the Gordon Harrison Gallery, Darlene says: “my art moves through a spectrum, from watercolor to oil, and the pleasure of each brush stroke makes me happy – I believe my Beginnings Collection is reflective of this happiness!”