About The Artist
One of the strongest motivators that drives an artist to create, is the impulse to express and capture the emotional truth to an idea, a place or a time. Wendy Fee’s vibrant, dynamic paintings are her response to the ever-changing landscape of natural elements that inspire her both at home and when travelling.
In 2013, Wendy became a member of The Montreal Art Centre, a community of sixty artists whose studios are located in a historic building in Griffintown, Montreal. This contemporary artist’s abstract works were in this studio space until 2018, when she moved to a new location designated as a combination working studio and commercial space. In collaboration with her daughter, Artist Generations was launched, a company that features their individual artwork on a collection of lifestyle clothing pieces as wearable art and interior decor.
Wendy has been expressing herself artistically for over thirty years, yet the path to pursue art on a professional level has been as unpredictable and flowing as the paint that washes over her canvases. Sketching and drawing in her formative years, after graduating high school she was accepted to Goddard College in Vermont, a “one of a kind institution of higher education with a history of creativity and chaos, invention and experimentation.” Being part of a free-spirited generation, Wendy declined the opportunity in favour of travel and experiencing “life”. Her husband of more than thirty-five years, together have since raised a wonderful family, pursued careers and have never taken opportunities and good fortune for granted.
Born in Montreal, Quebec,Wendy obtained an Executive MBA from Athabasca University in Alberta and a Postgraduate Diploma in Event Management from Fitzwilliam Institute in Dublin, Ireland. She enjoyed a successful career as a Senior Sales and Marketing Manager in the health care industry before deciding to launch her own event planning business in 2009, Chain of Events, operating as President, Owner and Founder. When Wendy chose the name of her company, it was in the spirit of “one thing leads to another” and in 2015 launched Wendy Fee Studio Art with enthusiasm, transitioning from the business world to pursue art on a professional level.
Wendy is an intuitive painter and shares a passion for colour, fashion, beauty and simply her joy of life. Growing up, Wendy’s family spent time outdoors, skiing in the Laurentians during the winter and spending the summer months by the ocean. The proximity to nature in its largest forms such as oceans and mountains has a profound impact on her body of work.
Since 2015, living aboard a boat for months at a time has inspired her subject matter as well the need to develop alternative techniques with both paint and substrates. Onboard materials include a roll of polyester canvas as well as Yupo and Terraskin papers that are portable and easily stretched and mounted back home in her studio. These substrates are chosen for their properties of sustainability and working surface that enable a variety of effects.
Wendy’s ongoing goal is to communicate the restorative power of nature to rebuild tired brains and heal them, based on the knowledge that neuroscientists are currently in the process of examining this concept. Richard Fernandes, a former executive coach at Google speaks to having an internet compass, and the need to balance the capabilities that technology offers with qualities of the lives that we live offline, words that resonate deeply with her.
Texture and colour best describe her signature style. When working on canvas she begins by creating texture with a variety of rice papers or by laying down acrylic mediums with a spatula to create form and shape. Some pieces will be overlaid with washes of fluid acrylics, while other paintings are completed with spatula only, working through the process of building up and scraping down the many layers of paint.
Since making the decision to pursue art on a professional level in 2015, Wendy’s debut solo show Natural Elements took place at The Montreal Art Centre, and in September 2016, Wendy showcased Escape! Abstract Explorations of Land, Sea & Sky. This body of work was inspired by four months living aboard a boat with her husband where together, they navigated the Intracoastal Waterway, crossing the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas and spending a month in the remote Berry Islands. One of her mixed-media art pieces was selected for publication September 2016 in Incite 4:Relax.Restore.Renew. In 2018, Wendy was selected as a member artist for Circle Foundation for the Arts in addition to having her works featured in ArtTour International Magazine Winter 2018. A new body of work was presented in October 2018 at her exhibition in Montreal entitled SANCTUARY, with one of the artworks in the exhibit “Dash & Dive” selected for publication in Acrylic Works 6: Creative Energy published in April 2019. In 2020, the signature piece SANCTUARY was additionally selected for publication in Acrylic Works 7, with Early Summit also selected and published in Acrylic Works 8, August. 2021. Early during the pandemic Wendy showcased a solo exhibit online “Rhythm & Blues” hosted by ARTAVIVA, followed by a solo exhibit of “Rhythm & Blues “ at Studio Artist Generations. In October 2021 Wendy was accepted into the Juried Exhibit ISEA International Society of Experimental Painters as well as being awarded Signature Member status. In February 2022 Wendy was one of the artists featured in World Wide Art Books Important World Artists 5th ed. In July 2023 a new work was accepted into the juried Federation of Canadian Artists exhibit “On the Edge” and subsequently sold. Wendy’s latest achievement is having been selected as Silver Artist in the October 2023 Abstract Issue of ARTAscent Magazine.The above solo exhibitions plus selection for juried shows have resulted in her works belonging in private collections in Canada, the U.S and The Bahamas.
Wendy approaches each new canvas with a spontaneous, undisciplined imagination and a high tolerance for uncertainty. By exploring the surrounding environment in an abstracted way, her goal is to deconstruct to the extent the meaning shifts and the viewer is invited to embrace the realms of their imagination. Wendy currently divides her time between studios in Montreal and The Bahamas.