steve fortier

Steve Fortier lives in Vancouver on the unceded, shared territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Steve grew up in Ottawa and attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. He worked in graphic design for thirty-five years but always continued to paint in both watercolour and acrylic, taking inspiration from the landscape around him. After moving to Vancouver in 1995, he was finally able to paint full time and began exploring the different ways of painterly expression, from landscape to high realism. His interest in form and colour carries through his paintings.

His current fascination with hard edged geometric abstraction has produced both pixilated and purely non-representational paintings. Pixilating his subject matter strips away all identifying detail to reveal fundamental segments of pure, shimmering color. The subject, is sensed rather than seen. In the nonrepresentational works the experience is wholly sensory, the interpretation given wholly to the viewer. Fortier uses a digital process and a plotter to assist in the complex masking and taping process involved with every colour in his paintings; this merging of technology, exactitude, and intuition, is the magic of these paintings. Each colour is masked and painted separately as he doesn't paint over another colour so It can be a time intensive process.