Robert Amirault

Robert Amirault is a long-time member of The Ontario Society of Artists and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, currently living in the south Niagara region.

Robert started his art career in his teenage years through correspondence courses found in comics, at 18 he became a student by correspondence at the Famous Artists School and learned to be a commercial artist. Three years later, he was hired as an artist at Simpsons Department Store in Halifax, specializing in illustrating men's and boys' clothes, hard goods and advertising layouts. Three years later, Robert was transferred to London, Ontario, to manage the store's advertising department, directing a ten-person team. He no longer illustrated, so he started teaching myself how to paint on weekends and holidays.

After a successful ten years in London, Robert moved to Toronto in 1973 to be the company's General Manager of Advertising and Sales Promotion with a staff of 80 talented artists, writers and production specialists. he retired from his position in 1984.

Never giving up on his dream of being a painter, he continued to draw and paint whenever he had the time. Robert freelanced for five years in his retail advertising business before joining an art reproduction company as Creative Vice President. The company manufactured three-dimensional reproductions of oil paintings, mainly of the famous Impressionists and popular artists of the time period.

A self-directed artist who is now devoting his time to his art career has sold his paintings in galleries across Canadian and the United States.

"Many of my oil or watercolour paintings are created on locations...'En Plein Air'...in various parts of Southern Ontario, the Maritimes, the United States and other places on my travels outside Canada. Larger paintings are created in my home studio, working from the 'Plein Air' studies and other reference materials gathered on my travels.

Landscapes, seascapes, faces, and figures are my favourite subjects. Painting from life gives me the 'truth' that I need to discern the effects of light on all subjects that interest me. I spend a large percentage of my time experimenting and studying the craft of painting fine art in a continuous quest to reach an ever-elusive goal."