Biography
John Vazalinskas is a Canadian artist living in Montreal, Quebec whose portrayals of a wide variety of colourful and intriguing subjects usually draw viewers to place themselves within the paintings and relive moments that they have experienced and want to remember.
Painting made a strong impression on him from early childhood when, in wartime Europe, his artist father provided him with storybooks that he had made, complete with watercolour pictures. John was thus inspired to draw and paint throughout his life. Graduation from McGill University with an engineering degree led to a 35-year career in the corporate world that eventually interrupted his painting but not his love of art.
As planned, upon early retirement, he resumed painting with new fervour and in his new preferred medium of oils. Although mainly self-taught, he continued to expand his experience at the Saidye Bronfman School of Fine Arts in Montreal and through numerous art workshops. He is an active member of several artist associations and his paintings can be seen in their regular group exhibitions as well as in galleries or solo art shows in the Montreal area and Eastern Ontario They are in private collections across Canada, in the U.S.A., Europe and Australia.
Artist's statement
“Having always delighted in discerning those features of my environment which make it particularly attractive to me, I gravitated toward design. For as long as I can remember, have been busy depicting my world as I see it, progressing from drawing as a young child to caricatures and cartooning during my school years, then to a hobby in figurative and abstract experimentation in acrylics while I worked and eventually to my second career in oil painting.
Painting alongside artist colleagues, I strive to continually refine my skills in observing and interpreting the varied subjects which I choose. While I feel more expressive painting natural landscapes, I enjoy capturing urban scenes with impact because this requires a range of perception that exceeds the traditional limits of composition, shape, light and color. My works do not require lengthy or pretentious explanations. They are meant to be moments captured in time which, while intended to please viewers, should also tell them something about me. Nothing is more inspiring to me than seeing that a painting of mine has evoked a pleasant memory or brought a smile to someone’s face.”
