ARTIST STATEMENT
After Love, our planet is the greatest gift bestowed to mankind.
Mother Nature’s splendor is absolute. Replicating any image of God’s perfect gift is therefore a frustrating and futile experience for an artist. All artists can do is reproduce what they see and feel onto their canvas.
I like to look at Mother Nature’s offerings and exaggerate both form and colour, somewhat like when one teases a loved one.
The result can be fanciful and sometimes surprising. By avoiding reproduction, I hope to have offered the viewer my impression of Her awe and beauty.
–Walter Raymond Michael Wekarchuk
ARTWORK
ARTWORKS LOCATED AT SVI
Walter
Wekarchuk
Walter Raymond Michael Wekarchuk was born in Montréal, Québec on March 31, 1944 to second generation parents of Ukrainian immigrants who arrived around 1913. His early active participation in his Ukrainian parochial community and six years of Ukrainian school imbued him with the beauty and vibrancy of his ancestors’ traditional colours, music, and dance.
Walter always loved the outdoors and the arts. His law practice and family life allowed him little time to pursue his painting although he always found time to hike in Nature with his spouse Louise.
Eight years ago, following her passing, Walter turned to concentrate on his other love, painting.
His passionate stroke and flair for colour belie the fact that he is self-taught.
When asked to describe his artwork, Walter answers: “In manipulating and exaggerating Mother Nature’s shapes and colours, I attempt to create my impressionistic expression of Her Beauty”.
In July 2019, Walter left “the big city” and moved to the Québec Montérégie area bordering the Eastern Townships where extensions of the Appalachians, the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Stoke Mountains converge.
His '“new horizons” have allowed him to continue painting vibrant scenes of his new neighbourhood.
Walter’s works were first featured at St.Vladimir Institute in a month long exhibit “This Blessed Land” as part of the Ukrainian Heritage Day celebrations in September 2017.
Eighteen donated early works don the walls of the palliative care unit of CHSLD Rose de Lima in Laval, Québec. Several of his works are part of private collections in Canada and the US.
Interested TO purchase original artwork by Walter Wekarchuk?
Contact us at svi@stvladimir.ca
Make sure to indicate which artwork you would like to purchase and where you are located. Note that the prices listed above do not include shipping.
All artworks are painted with acrylics on stretched canvas.