Wilfrid’s dream to become an artist started at a very young age. His father, rather than encourage him to develop his talent, de-motivated him by constantly telling him that all painters had died poor and that he wasted his time scribbling needlessly, and that he dream in colour
and lost his time. He even drew while in school and consequently did not always pay attention to what the teacher had to say. Being brought up in large poverty-stricken family was not conducive to responding to one’s inner utterly far-fetched artistic calling. His desire to make a living from his art progressively fell by the way-side during his adolescence and he totally gave up drawing for many years.
He briefly started again while completing a course in graphic design in 1983 but stopped for the next 20 years. Even though he did paint periodically during his adult years, it is only in 2001 that he truly re-connected with his artistic essence after discovering the amazing potential of coloured pencils. ‘There is’ he says: ‘’ a special connection between my pencil and I which makes me comfortable and renders the task at hand a lot easier to accomplish.’’
His fondness for this art form came about after he created a birthday card for his son’s godfather at his son’s request – an art form he was not familiar with then, as is the case for many people. From that moment, he realized that coloured pencil art needed to be known and
recognized as a legitimate form of art. Many mistakenly believe that pencil is only for children and beginners. He therefore sees it as his duty to promote this art form through his works and explore the untapped possibilities it offers. Wilfrid is one of the rare coloured pencils artists in Quebec. His style can be described as realistically representational and mainly portrays sceneries, city streets. His open-minded creativity allows him to explore other subjects as well. His style could evolve or even change should his inspiration lead him
that way.
Wilfrid Barbier joined Pixels.com Licensing on January 26th, 2015.
