The Show

Meet the Artists

Your Portraits

Patrick Decoste took time with Star Portraits to answer a few questions. We learn more about the type of paintings he chooses and why.

SP: How did you become interested in art?

PD: I don't remember how I first got into art, but my mother said that when I was a toddler she would spread paper on the floor to stop me from drawing on the walls and furniture. At high school in Riverview, New Brunswick, we had an extensive art program and a great teacher named Ken Frost.

SP: When did you decide to become a professional artist?

PD: I was active in the art program in high school, and also an avid computer geek who programmed a Vic-20 computer in the basement to make music and videos. I received two university scholarships: one for Bachelor of Fine Arts and the other for Bachelor of Computer Science. I chose Fine Arts and went off to Mount Allison University.

SP: Do you believe fundamental skills are essential for making art?

PD: Yes, I believe fundamental art skills are useful; like the fundamentals of standing before walking (no sarcasm).

SP: In the future where do you see yourself with your art?

PD: In the future, I see my art going in new directions. I have plans with polar bears in Northern Ontario and pirates in the Mediterranean Sea.

SP: Describe your last work about Nova Scotia during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

PD: One story that interests me centres on Born Swimming. She was a Mi'kmaq woman who had a prophetic dream about the arrival of the Europeans in Nova Scotia. She recounted her dream, which depicted a floating island with strange trees and bears, and a Shaman. The Shaman said the white people are bad: kill them or flee. Her dream came true shortly afterwards.

SP: Do you prefer your paintings to have a story or history? If so, are there particular stories that spike your interest?

PD: Yes, I prefer my paintings to have a story or history behind them. My background in my home province of Nova Scotia is French and Mi'kmaq, so I am interested in first contact stories between Europeans and First Nations. One story I am dissecting is The Theatre of Neptune, which was staged in Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1606. It was a French masque, a musical theatrical production on ships in a harbour. The French presented Neptune and The King of France as the new rulers of the Mik'maq. I am including Kluskap (Mik'maq God and folk hero) into this story to contrast the presence of Neptune. I think most art works have a story whether it is conceptual, narrative, factual, fictional, or relative to art that has come before.

Artist Stats

Patrick DeCoste is a Toronto based artist who studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University.  His paintings are created with many thin layers of translucent acrylic paint.  He has received grants from Toronto Arts Council, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Canada Council for the Arts.