"Bass Harbor Maine Light By Moonlight" / Art Chouinard
Paintings by Art Chouinard will be on display at Canton Town Hall in January and February. Photo: dotCANTON
By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
The more you look at his work and the more you listen to his story the more you find yourself almost disbelieving what the man is saying.
Self-taught? Never tried painting until a little more than a decade ago … when he was well into his 60s?
Art Chouinard of Avon grins a lot as his visitor marvels over how far and how fast he has come, almost like, maybe, he doesn’t quite believe it himself.
"HMS Rose Tall Ship" / Art Chouinard
Make no mistake, Chouinard — pronounced Shen-ard — has a highly skilled right hand. His talent for general graphics and lettering paid the bills for 40 years, and you get the feeling he’d still be creating banners, promotional posters, artwork and trade show presentations for area insurance companies had the computer not come along. But it did, and it took work away from him and many others in that trade.
“A lot of artists that were let go went to computer school,” says Chouinard, who has been invited to display his extraordinarily detailed paintings at Canton Town Hall through the months of January and February. “If I had been a lot younger, I probably would have gone, (too).”
"Weekapaugh, R.I., By Moonlight" / Art Chouinar
Instead, Chouinard started looking for something else to do. “Retirement is a foreign word to me,” he says. “I wanted to convert over to a different scene entirely.”
He started painting general landscapes and scenes from around the Farmington Valley, including, quite naturally, the Collins Co. ax factory in Collinsville. His efforts were impressive to say the least, but Chouinard didn’t find a path he could follow with passion until a friend in Watch Hill, R.I., introduced him to the work of maritime artist John Stobart. The British-born Stobart’s s realistic style paintings got Chouinard’s attention.
"Niantic Yacht Club Misty Morning" / Art Chouinard
“Oh, boy, did they ever,” he says.
“I loved his work and said that’s where I’d like to be someday. I said, here’s a goal.”
Just as he had never planned to paint, Chouinard wasn’t thinking about being a commercial graphic artist when he was growing up in Hartford’s South End and attending St. Augustine Grammar School and Bulkeley High School. He envisioned himself playing his trombone for a living and even enlisted in the Air Force to be a member of a field band.
It didn’t take long for some realities to hit home.
“I wanted to be a musician badly,” he says. “But when I lived with other musicians in the Air Force, I could see where I was lacking.”
He took a “mail order” course in architectural drafting while in the service and produced publicity posters for some Air Force buddies who were booking stateside talent to entertain the troops in Puerto Rico, where Chouinard was stationed for three years.
Following the Air Force, Chouinard got a little more graphic art experience with the state highway department before landing a job with a Hartford sign shop, where he honed his skill for 12 years. After making “many good contacts” in that time, Chouinard struck out on his own, and wound up working as a freelancer for “major insurance companies” for about three decades.
These days, Chouinard is a maritime artist himself, with a realistic style that features an amazing attention to detail. At the age of 79 and a member of the Avon Arts Association, he says he paints three to four hours a day, “primarily with oil right now.” He spends one day each month painting at the Canton Public Library. He is scheduled to be there next on Thursday, Jan. 20, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Chouinard’s work is obtainable directly through him and through Puffins of Watch Hill in Westerly, R.I.
