We recently connected with Christopher Villeneuve and have shared our conversation below.
Christopher, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
My daughter and I visited Quebec City for Christmas in 2023 and on Christmas Eve we stopped into an art gallery to get warm where we saw a small painting by an artist with the same name of my late father. It was a small painting of Two Woodcutters priced at $2500 and I commented that at that price I’d paint it myself and my daughter thought that was funny. The next morning my buddy’s wife back in New Hampshire called to tell me that her husband passed away in his sleep that morning so it was a sad ride home. The next week while sitting with his widow, friends and family I decided that I wanted to leave something behind for my kids and grandkids so announced that I was going to teach myself to become a painter and everyone got a good chuckle from that. I picked up a few bits of painting supplies and decided to start painting on New Year’s Day 2024. Four days later I finished Frenchy #1 “The Woodcutters” featuring my little cabin with me and my friend cutting logs and it wasn’t half bad so I decided to stay with it and have painted 82 paintings in my first 16 months as a self-taught artist.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I started painting so that my kids and grandkids would have bits of me and my stories. With this I’m mind, I decided that my paintings had to have two things that are important to me, color and a story. Since I wanted to share my “stories” I began to post my paintings on social media and started to gain a following because I wanted people to experience all of the new things that I was figuring out for myself with each new painting. One month and 5 or 6 paintings later a local Maple Syrup farm commissioned me to paint their sugar house and farm which launched me as a professional artist. Most people know me as Frenchy so I came well known in New Hampshire as “Frenchy the Painter” and sign all of my paintings as C. Frenchy Villeneuve.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I find it very rewarding when people are amazed that I just jumped into a new vocation, sight unseen at age 62 and that I get to tell them that if I can do it then anybody can tap into their own creative side. I also get a kick out of people enjoying my paintings and the stories they convey and the fact that people actually by my art to have around them every day feels very satisfying beyond the monetary reward.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I often get people who ask me why I didn’t take traditional art classes and refuse to to this day. There are two main reasons why I don’t. The first reason is time. I started at age 62 and set a goal of a minimum of 100 paintings and I’m believed that I needed to just jump in and get to it and felt that if I took the time to go to classes that it would severely cut into my time to create new canvases. The second reason was to stay pure to my native style. When I began, I didn’t know what I didn’t know so every new painting was a learning experience. Sometimes solutions came easy and sometimes they were more difficult but after the first dozen paintings and getting a few more commissions as well as selling my first handful of original paintings I decided that the public let me know that I was on the right track. Art lessons may be the best way for some people to get into it but I’m glad that I get to show people that we don’t always have to take the traditional approach to anything in life to become successful at it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://frenchythepainter.company.site
- Instagram: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Ffrenchythepainter%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExUm1RNG9FSzRIVG83dG84RQEeaOed2LEIiiOKJqoqiWkhKPfnaDJ-K_YNfMIZf1Alsdwq8Qs7xnJyIEJX0A4_aem_RRchUe1ZaLbEjYeO6-a0Zg&h=AT2UpjAu-8qv3vZ2MLJDySzgxEPo5wpfmIkeIpem494vtG1D3KcMPOU1pqF__TMPmJJTvNaQRixzTD4z8Zm7LySyn2nJPvqrZKOSe8MHjCo80kcq6Q1LSpLJdQKC
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555382267224
- Youtube: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutube.com%2F%40FrenchyThePainter%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExUm1RNG9FSzRIVG83dG84RQEeIx7Jlxd3IBE3di83pmbY_kiS1sU7clqMIDUiNv9pSEd0uPl_Ce7V-udB6F8_aem_OE9nT2APVNfBJIEMVsGJkg&h=AT3z1jfA_uzyyqzM22OWL1Ryuen5UT_cBQURZ_EHKerlgkoYo3luFGqXBfRcSZDWQ6lnn8rBfEHSDlhjutxUmeXl8DbmJheI5E1V7valpTXFdDFt_yA3edO7IBjv
