Canadian watercolourist Jean Villeneuve was born in Montreal in 1934. Villeneuve comes from a family in which the arts and culture were highly valued and respected. As a result, he began to draw at a very early age. He studied Classics at Le Collège de l’Assomption, followed by art courses at l’École des Arts Appliqués.
Villeneuve worked at Radio-Canada from 1957 to 1959 as a stage-effects designer, and then went on to become a teacher, assistant-principal and principal for 33 years. In 1987, he returned to the artistic world and began attending watercolor workshops with Ming Ma, Rita Briansky and Claude Paquette.
Since 1995, Villeneuve has participated in numerous group and solo art exhibitions and symposia, while working on large murals and other ornamental paintings for various private companies. From 2001 to 2006, Villeneuve received awards for his different watercolour paintings in the competition “Cercle des Artistes Peintres et Sculpteurs du Québec”. In April 2003, he was awarded the “Technical Achievement Award” by the Canadian Watercolour Society for his painting titled “Pot-Pourri”.
Most recently, Villeneuve has become a member of the Canadian Watercolour Society and continues to paint from his workshop situated in the quaint little town of Dunham, in the Eastern Townships.
The artist pulls inspiration from the shapes and colors of nature; in the form of hills and valleys, among others. His most prominent subjects are floral still-life’s.
