Lydia Pepin

Lydia Pepin is a Canadian oil painter whose work captures and crystallizes the beauty of the everyday scene. When not involved with her own work, she does traditional and digital drawing commissions, gives private art classes, participates in local art events and volunteers for various causes. Lydia’s artwork was recently on exhibit at the Trinity Art Gallery, as well as local restaurant Aroma Meze, and resides in various international private collection. Lydia has been featured in multiples articles, TV show "Entre Nous", and will be doing an interview for the international magazine “Art and Design” ’s August print. She is currently working on various commission, including the portrait of Mayor Jim Watson.

“I remember a particular moment in a market in Spain when I was fifteen years old. There was a toddler sitting in a cart, crying. Their mother turned around, delicately split an apricot in two, and brought it to the mouth of the wide-eyed child. The light was shining perfectly on them and it was such a tender and resplendent moment to witness and has been engrained in my memory ever since. Almost all my paintings are moments similar to this - an instant or a view that bewitched me and that I want to share with others. I want to do more than just replicate nature however. I want to use composition and lighting to bring my audience's attention to the right elements of my piece - help them see the beauty I’ve tried to crystallize. Before working on a painting, I spend hours doing research and put together the perfect color palette. I work in layers, from china ink to washes and various stages of colors. That’s my attraction to oil painting; you can slowly build layer by layer a richness of color and depth that I feel no other medium can match. I take the time to construct a painting that can take me back to that initial emotion and state of mind.”

“My brush strokes, and the decisions I make at that particular moment, are always a translation of my personality. No matter what I do, what is on the canvas is an interpretation of what I see and feel. I seek to share my expression with others, showing them the beauty I interpreted to let them do the same. I don't aim to tell anyone what to feel, but instead to share something that will hopefully move a viewer as much as it moved me. Even the simplest moments in life such as choosing a melon in the market, playing a few strings on the guitar, or taking a breath and relaxing after a long day at work, hold beauty.”