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Richard Bélanger was born in Mont-Louis in the Gaspé Peninsula (Québec, Canada). Early in his childhood, he became keenly interested in visual arts and enjoyed drawing everything around him. In 1955, his family moved to Montréal, where he has lived ever since. His interest in drawing rapidly changed into a passion which left him little time for anything else... to the dismay of his teachers who recommended instead that he look to his future.
As an adolescent, he explored oil painting and dreamt of becoming a cartoonist. He signed up for the Famous Artist correspondence course, and later entered the "Académie des Arts du Canada". It was there that he experimented with several different techniques related to commercial art and discovered his true vocation: watercolor.
Richard Bélanger enriched is studies by participating in workshops given by well known watercolor painters, notably Don Stone and Kevin Raines. In 1980, he received a bursary from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.
Richard Bélanger is a figurative realist painter who s associated with the New England school. He uses watercolor as his principal medium. A perfectionist, he places great importance on the permanency of pigments. "It is the light that, above all, gives life to my subjects," he says. He enjoys depicting, often in a humerous way, slices of life, scenes of the city and country. His paintings always suggest a story, something past or something about to happen...
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Hereford, 48X48, Acrylic on wood
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