André Vaillant is a landscape artist based in Victoria, British Columbia. His paintings are inspired by the remote and rugged vistas that are found on Vancouver Island’s many hiking trails and backcountry wilderness areas.

Artist Statement

There are two places where I’ve always felt like I belonged, in the wilderness and behind my drafting table working on a painting. As an avid hiker and outdoorsman, I feel constantly drawn to the wilderness and the deeper or more remote the location the greater the allure of it. The raw beauty of the landscapes is both timeless in nature and in a constant flux of change. Though many of these areas are accessible by some trail or another, it’s always been apparent that not everyone is able to reach these areas and even my own physical ability to reach them is finite. I see my paintings as “Mementos of the Wild”; a way of reliving my time in these places and of sharing these incredible vistas with both those who might be unable to travel and see it for themselves.

I often describe my current work as “geometric” or “tight” impressionism. Through the use precise techniques and an angular style, I use this impressionistic approach to not only accurately depict the remote vistas I visit but also stive to capture the emotional atmosphere and character of the landscape. I’ve always been very intrigued with how light effects the mood and emotional quality of a landscape; how it changes in tone, accentuates the texture of a surface, or the intense contrast it creates like that of sun after a passing storm. Expressing the emotional quality of this light while being true to the form of a landscape is a challenge I love to wrestle with and is something that I stive to bring to life in my works.

I see my work as an opposition to the post-modernism in the artistic community; championing precision, craftsmanship, aesthetics, and composition. Living in a world that is constantly facing unprecedented challenges at breakneck speeds, I believe that slowing down and seeing the beauty of the world around us is more important than ever. Even the ocean mist illuminated by a rising sun or the failing light of a day in the alpine can spark reverence. It is these moments i try to capture. Above all else I strive for a mastery over my craft so that I’m able to capture, express, and share these moments of beauty I’ve found in the remote places of the wilds with those around me.