Lisa Côté Illustrator & Fine Artist
In an increasingly digital age, I’m a fairly analogue artist. I enjoy the ritual of setting up my easel and palette, scrubbing the acrylics with my rag or fingertip, watching the watercolours dance and seep across the paper to form an image that is planned yet surprising. While I appreciate the many doors the age of computers has opened to artists and the world at large, my personal bent is toward painterly realism and cartooning created through traditional methods and media.
Illustration
The Illustration program at Sheridan College gave me a solid grounding in traditional drawing and painting techniques as well as plenty of time to explore more free and modern approaches to creating images. Curating group art shows in downtown Toronto was a great opportunity to experiment with different styles, from dark and poignant to playful and energetic. Currently, my focus is on children’s books and characters, something that has become of particular interest to me since becoming a mother.
Fine Art
Where fine art is concerned, I lean toward realistic portraiture and stylized landscapes, always with close consideration given to light and contrast.
Pet Portraiture
That little girl who hatched butterflies in jars and forgot about a dead mouse she had taken pity on and stashed in her kindergarten coat pocket is still alive (certainly) and well (debatable) inside me. My lifelong love of animals has found its way into my art time and again and has provided me with my most reliable source of commissioned work: pet portraits. I feel grateful to share in the joy of having captured someone’s beloved furry (or feathered/hairy/scaly/slimy…) friend on canvas.