Heidi Conrod

Heidi Conrod graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours Biology) from the University of Ottawa. Since then she studied painting, printmaking and drawing at the Ottawa School of Art and the University of Ottawa (Visual Arts).

Heidi is a creator of unusual worlds, blending the past and present giving the contemporary works a timeless feel. Her references include; personal photos, found photos, memories, newspapers, and the Internet.

In her most recent suite of landscapes, her paintings are based on remembered landscapes created from vistas that I recall but can no longer see in the world around me. In this sense, the landscapes are more internal than external in their use of mediation on memory and distance.

The subject of these paintings is found as much in their technique as in the depicted images. As I paint ideas, thoughts, patterns are built up and the broken down. Working in oil and wax, alternating layers of glaze and wax, putting on and taking off, allows for the unpredictable qualities of the medium to create an alchemic tension where deeper levels of meaning are slowly revealed.

Heidi's work is found in numerous corporate and private collections.

“I am an artist whose work is in a constant state of movement and change. From semi abstract moody landscapes, to intimate and ethereal portraits to printmaking and sculpture, I am constantly experimenting with media that suit the story I am trying to tell. I am driven by the process of creating, rather than the outcome of that process.

My work is inspired by the world around me. The themes that most interest me are memory, loneliness, gender roles, human courage and the common human experience. I like to use my art to break down the borders between the outside and inside worlds, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future and the expected and unexpected.”