Chantal P. Durocher

Chantal Poulin-Durocher was born and raised in Montréal, Québec. After becoming dissatisfied with contemporary visual art studies and practices at the time, Durocher became a student of Classical art training at the Mission Renaissance Fine Art Institute in California.

It was during this time the artist found herself rebelling against institutionalized contemporary art standards. Durocher spent much of her studies focusing on the classical techniques of drawing and painting, refining her mastery of Realist, representational art. It was with these skills the artist would later utilize as a vehicle for her Deconstructionist aesthetic.

Durocher continued her artistic development by concentrating on Impressionist landscapes, as well as Expressionist renderings. Eventually shifting her focus totally from Realism to pure abstraction. In 2009, in an attempt to further experience a new social and visual environment, Chantal Poulin-Durocher emigrated from Quebec to Central America. The artist set up her first studio in Costa Rica, before continuing her practice to the beaches of Panama, where she still resides today.

Chantal incorporates her personal convictions into her work, drawing inspiration from her Buddhist beliefs, and more recently, her love and respect for sentient beings. Her latest body of work consists of a series of large-scale portraits, depicting animals that have become exploited in modern times. In this series, Poulin-Durocher has come full circle from abstraction to representation, presenting us with realistic, figurative pieces that resonate with her classical technique.