CANMORE – Like many hobbyist woodworkers, Clarence Durocher was impacted by the exponential rise in hardwood and building supplies during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Durocher decided he needed to transition his work into something more material-efficient but would still allow him to continue his woodworking hobby.
He combines wood, epoxy and acrylic in his work to create unique landscapes.
“One day, when I was visiting a friend, they had a mountain landscape painting in their dining room,” Durocher said. “The minute I saw it, I knew I could recreate a similar design using woodworking techniques.”
During various COVID-19 lockdowns, Durocher continued to refine his techniques by incorporating epoxy and natural materials into the pictures to refine the photo realism effect.
The basic technique involves transferring an image to wood and then using a scroll saw to break down the image into small interlocking pieces, much like a jigsaw puzzle.
“I was a woodworker, and I already understood a lot of the process of using scroll saws and using planers, and band saws, and that sort of thing,” Durocher said.
“The photo-realism effect is what I go for it. I’d been to 10 peaks before I knew that was the picture. I understand the trees there. That’s where my strength comes from the woodworking field, not the painting field.”
Durocher's art has reflective quality using wood to bring up the colour and intensity in his artwork.
The wood inspires his artwork pieces; the individual pieces are shaped and textured, and then the parts are dyed or stained and reassembled up to 100 pieces.
“All the pieces are then glued back together to form the original image. Tinted epoxy is poured to create the water effect, and finally, the frames are each custom-built,” he said.
Each picture takes between 40 and 60 hours or more to create, depending on the level of detail. During the on and off two years of multiple COVID-19 lockdowns, Durocher created 16 mountain landscape images.
His unique landscape artwork is now on display at the July exhibition of the Canmore Art Guild. The exhibition runs until July 30, Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Other guild painters such as Simon Latulippe, Peter Fuhrmann, Carole Garland, Barb Maki, Lucy Levi, Gillian Quinn, Jannis Allan Hare, Dana Roman and Naomi Wiebe also have work displayed at the exhibit.
Joining the Art Guild gave Durocher the opportunity to interact with local artisans in multiple disciplines, exchange ideas, and foster creativity.
“Quite a journey for a person whose only previous experience with painting involved a tray and roller,” he said.
Creating enables Durocher to share a part of his life's journey spiritually and positively.
“There have been tons of people in the gallery who’ve asked me how do you do this? What I’d be happy to help people to learn how to do it?” he said.
“I tell people exactly how it's done. I don’t have to do this to get rich or to get richer,” Durocher said. “It’s been nice that people have come in, and said how much they liked them.”
