Mark Thibeault’s approach to abstraction is informed by the role of chance in musical improvisation. Likewise, his paintings–bricolages of seemingly unrelated visual information transcribed from multiple viewpoints of a landscape, bring together line, form, colour and texture to create new and unexpected meanings.
Canadian painter Mark Thibeault lives in Telkwa, British Columbia. His practice extends across painting, music and lutherie.
Thibeault's abstract works are an exploration of landscape, especially in regards to his immediate surroundings in British Columbia. This is combined with interests in the painted gesture, allegories within the history of painting and romantic notions of home and belonging.
As a musician and guitar builder as well as a visual artist, Thibeault’s approach to abstraction is also informed by the role of chance in musical improvisation. Likewise, his paintings–bricolages of seemingly unrelated visual information transcribed from multiple viewpoints of a landscape–bring together line, form, colour and texture to create new and unexpected meanings. Thibeault relates this to the way stories are pieced together, or the familiarity of distant melodies and visions. His process becomes a gathering of experiences finding their way to be witnessed as a mark; an intuitive unveiling or revealing of what he describes as the inherent linear compositions woven through our perception of the world and our interactions within it.
He studied for a B.F.A. majoring in visual arts, primarily painting and drawing, at the University of Windsor, BC (1992). He has designed and crafted over 400 world-class musical instruments, examples of which are reproduced in major publications celebrating the art of lutherie, including, Terry Burrows '1001 Guitars To Dream of Playing Before You Die'.
Upcoming; solo shows include; 'Populated', Bugera Matheson Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta (spring 2025); solo show, 'Populated', Crowsnest Pass Public Art Gallery, Alberta (2025); solo show, Vernon Public Art Gallery, BC (autumn 2025).
Thibeault has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions in Canada and internationally, including; 'Postcards from the Pacific', three month solo exhibition, Museum of Northern BC, (April to June 2024); solo show, 'Archetypes and Allegories', NoonPowell Fine Art, London (2022); 'Populated', Smithers Art Gallery, BC (2022); Affordable Art Fair, Battersea Spring, Autumn and Hampstead, London (2022-2024); 'Experience of Wonder: Wonderment', group show, NoonPowell Gallery, London (2021); Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London (2021); 'Populated', Smithers Gallery, Terrace, BC (2021); 'Coastal Influence', Terrace, BC (2021); 'Visual Variations: Figurative to Abstract', NoonPowell Gallery, London (2020); Christmas Exhibition, NoonPowell Gallery, London (2020); 'Cycles', Museum of Northern BC (2020); A Line Collected Art Gallery, BC (2019); 'Home', Smithers Gallery, BC (2019). He was the inaugural Cassiar Cannery, Artist in Residence, BC (2019).