About the Artist  

Photo: Robert Ballantyne, March 2008

".....we manifest in general what we seriously think and believe."

Emmet Fox  

My name is Colette Copeland; I am an artist and writer living in Toronto, Canada. I was educated at Trinity College Dublin; after graduation I went into publishing on the editorial side, and after learning about books and publishing, I ended up in magazines. Today I freelance as a magazine journalist, but I mostly make art.

I began my painting career with small watercolors, illustrating a monthly food column which I also wrote, for a Toronto publication. Eventually my watercolors got bigger and bigger, then I added acrylics, sometimes combined with oils to get certain effects. Among my favorite painters are Milton Avery, John Marin, Edward Hopper, Paul Klee, Georgia O'Keefe for her watercolors, and Lenore Tawney for her postcard collages. Their work has influenced me, and gives me unlimited enjoyment. 

My work is primarily intuitive. I get lost in colors and shapes and characters, and the whole thing becomes a Zen-like experience. Time has always been a challenge for me: not enough time, too much time. I've had to train myself to stop judging things based on time, a panic-producing bad habit. Painting and writing take me out of myself and to a place where there is no time.  I use strong colors in my acrylics and watercolors, but when it comes to collage and paper arts, I often prefer soft, muted, vintage effects. 

Two fonts I've used for titles on these pages are Rochester and Max Rhodes, created by the amazing Eduardo Recife. 

Thank you for visiting!

Favorite quotes:  

"If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator."-W. Beran Wolfe

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter, don’t mind.” (Dr. Seuss)

"When you become quiet, it just dawns on you." -Thomas Edison

Recipe for my perfume:

Moonbeams
Tiaré
A sweet kiss
Cocoa bean
Bergamot
and a pinch of excitement

A favorite poem

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart)

i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart) -   e.e.cummings