Valerie Crowder-Irvin
Toronto, Canada

Bio

I am inspired by the colours and shapes I see in nature, and my art reveals the beauty I see around me. My works range from representational to abstract depending on the story to be told.

I capture the love and passion I have for the Canadian landscape and for the U.S. Sonoran Desert where in both places colour, shape, and texture define the vitality and quirks of nature, and where the inanimate becomes animate and every scene tells a story.

The stories from nature that I interpret in my paintings are rich in vibrant colours and bold shapes that translate inanimate objects into living ones—a dead tree into an elk, a saguaro cactus crying, an iceberg into a pair of sleeping dogs lazily floating across the bay.

My influences include the Group of Seven, Kandinsky, van Gogh, Picasso and Andy Warhol.

During my corporate years, I indulged my creative streak through fashion and interior design, but I have loved painting since childhood and returned to it after I retired. Since then I have studied with the Avenue Road Arts School in Toronto, the Toronto School of Art, and the Scottsdale (AZ) Artists School.

I am a member of the North Toronto Group of Artists, The Lawrence Park Art Collective, A Place For The Arts (APFTA) in Bancroft Ontario and the Working Artists Studio in Scottsdale, Arizona.