Joie de Vivre - An Exhibition by Sacha Barrette

West End Gallery is pleased to announce Sacha Barrette’s premiere exhibition in Victoria!

Sacha completed his bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Université du Québec à Montréal in 1982 and went on to work successfully at several advertising agencies. Having also worked teaching private art lessons Sacha’s love of painting intensified and he made the leap of faith to devote himself entirely to painting.

Inspired by his travels across North and South America and Europe, Sacha’s colour palette is a rich combination of deep ochre, burnt orange, rich burgundy, and vibrant blue. Enticing viewers down familiar alleyways and tranquil landscapes Sacha’s paintings offer a vibrant invitation for your eyes to travel throughout the canvas. 

"Thirty years ago, I left everything for painting: my house, work, and spouse. I let Art guide my nomadic steps with only a bag pack as luggage, some rolled canvas and my colors. Since I didn’t like the boulevards and the high streets, I always passed through the alleys, bringing me from one to the other until I reached my destination.  It was during one of these walks, at a time when I didn’t know what to paint, that I found in an alley everything I was looking for. There is a wide range of colours in an alley, both nature and architecture can be appreciated, with a beautiful and inspiring escape point.  There is also this frozen time away from urban modernity, this rural atmosphere printed on the walls of fences, garages, and interior courtyards. These little “corners” of the city where the human has tinkered behind the brick facades, a glimpse of life unique to each one. From then on, I have never stopped painting these alleys, each time as if it were the first. They became the engine of my inspiration." 

For this new series, Sacha painted the alleys with a new approach. They are no longer painted from real and existing places, but purely inspired from his imagination. For the landscapes, they are the landscapes just around his home, where he walks the paths at least every other day. And the ponds come directly from memories of his last trip to France in 2017-2018.