Olivier Denis

After difficult early schooling (his english teacher says he consistently was the worse student he ever had), Olivier Denis decides at the age of 19 that his career would be in the graphic arts, and enrolls in the famous Paris Collège Technique d’Enseignement d’Art Graphique. He follows by completing his mandatory military service in Germany, where he would discover the trumpet and play in the military band.

Returning to France, he is offered a gladly accepted job as editor and graphic artist with the radio and TV programming magazine published by the Institut PédagogiqueP National, in Paris

But after awhile he needs to see the world: In November 1965, he boards a ship leaving The Hague that will lead him to the coasts of Quebec, Canada, where he finds work with the Guy Lalumière Studio and hones his musical skills at the Vicent D’Indy School. Homesick, he returns for a last time to France in July 1968 after marrying Thérèse, a Québecoise. He first attempts to rediscover Paris, then takes back the pen as a graphic artist in Strasbourg for the Kronenbourg Breweries.

Two years later, now the young father of Roxane, he seeks peace and tranquility near Lyon, in a smaller village called Ormoy, in Yonne (France) where he dedicates his life to animal husbandry and raising rabbits… His second daughter is born there.

He comes back to make his home in Quebec in 1975 with his family, but the couple splits up. For four years, he illustrates biology and genetics books published by the University of Montreal, and some children books. Contracts becoming scarce, he decides to go back to his great love, painting, in 1991

Olivier Denis aims to capture the essence of life itself, at it happens, and reflects on the modern condition of the world, and is inspired by everyday events, his daughters, his friends, and his great love for nature. You may even have crossed his path on the Mont-Royal trails, where he hikes almost every day.