The Community Arts Council of the Alberni Valley is thrilled to continue our Featured Artist Series, shining a spotlight on one of our remarkable local artists. These profiles appear across our social media, website, and in the newspaper, celebrating the creativity thriving in our community.
This installment highlights Isabelle Richard, a watercolour artist whose lush, layered paintings of plant life capture the quiet confidence and exuberant joy of the natural world.
Isabelle believes every child starts out an artist, only most of us unlearn the capacity to create without rules. Her own start came through a kids’ art class after school, where she first discovered watercolour paint. She credits her grandfather and a string of encouraging art teachers with helping her trust her own pen marks and colour choices, including her colour-blind Opa, who once told her that a brown she’d mixed by accident was exactly right for her painting. She still wonders what colour he actually saw.
Isabelle has not pursued formal training as an adult artist, and she does not see that as a gap. For her, becoming an artist has meant learning to trust her own inherent capacity to make it. One teacher’s advice has stayed with her ever since: there is no wrong way to paint a cloud.
Her creative process centres on what she calls an imaginary memory of plants, tapping into the feeling of being immersed in their colour and texture rather than working from direct observation, much like the way a scent can call back a memory on its own. Painting takes her full attention, and nature is the well she returns to again and again to refill her bank of wonders.
Moving to the West Coast from Eastern Canada reshaped how Isabelle sees the landscape around her. Here, she marvels at seeing green through the winter months. She finds herself drawn to the forest and wonders what the trees are whispering as she hums her way up the mountain.
Her most recent body of work, titled Garden, lets water take the lead alongside the paint, creating patterns in the foliage and petals that feel like they have taken on a life of their own. It’s a theme close to her heart: water, she says, is part of what makes this planet so special.
Isabelle hopes her paintings reconnect people with the vibrancy of plants, that same quiet confidence and exuberant joy she feels in the studio. She thinks of art as a mirror; it reflects what we do or sometimes don’t want to see. To her, the unselfconscious marks that children make are reminders of the imperfection that makes us human. Selected pieces of her work are currently on display at Arrowsmith Veterinary Hospital, part of her ongoing presence in the local arts community.
When asked what advice she would give to emerging artists, Isabelle shared:
“Be yourself! There is only one you, and for that reason alone, what you create is inherently perfect.”
Isabelle Richard is based in Port Alberni, BC, and works primarily in watercolour, though she’ll pick up acrylic if it means she can paint a mural. Her work can be found online at isabellerichard.ca, or by reaching out directly at isabellerichardartwork@gmail.com.
Follow our social media, website, and check the newspaper to discover the next incredible local artist in the Featured Artist Series!
