Peter Labelle: Bio- A Narrative
Early Years
I grew up in the little village of Richmond Ontario, in the Ottawa Valley, the fifth child of a family of seven children. My parents moved to Richmond from Hull, Quebec, located along the Ottawa River.
I grew up fishing in the Jock River that ran by our home and roamed the bush on the edge of town, a sacred place that provided me with reflective time. In summer, I worked on the mixed farms that flourished on the fertile lands of our valley and I learned about caring for plants and animals.
My mother and sisters painted and they encouraged me in my artistic pursuits. My earliest childhood memory is the smell of oil paints, of hiding under the dining room table and smearing the walls with my paint covered hands.
In winter, I spent time making ice rinks, skating and playing hockey. In the basement of our home, I always had a creative space to draw, dream and explore ideas.
My parents believed in Gallery Education and took us to the old National Gallery on Elgin Street, not far from where my father worked at the National Research Council.
Our family camped every summer in Algonquin Park, a place I returned to many times as a young man to canoe and sketch with visions of Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven paddling there ahead of me on the sparkling water of Canoe Lake.
Education
I choose a College Arts Education in the apprenticeship tradition with the goal of gaining a set of practical skills to earn a living in the Applied Arts, so I could work and raise a family while still creating my own work in my studio.
At Sheridan College in Brampton and Oakville, Ontario I studied Classical Animation Interpretative Illustration and Independent Filmmaking. Here I met and worked with many influential artists and teachers who mentored me on my learning path. Artists and teachers Susana Wald and Wayne Gilbert remain friends and mentors to this day.
I also studied at the Ottawa School of Art in the Intensive Drawing and Painting program. An open school with a diverse student body, I was exposed to many different views on image making. This was a community grassroots arts centre which grew out of an old school to their current location in the By-Ward Market.
Early Community Arts and Teaching
As a young person I was interested in Community Arts. My first volunteer experience was teaching drawing workshops in our local libraries. This lead to an opportunity to teach drawing workshops across Eastern Ontario for the Ontario Library Service the majority of which I delivered by riding from location to location on my bicycle.
During my studies at Sheridan College, I taught a series of Short Filmmaking programs for youth organized by the City of Mississauga Parks and Recreation Department.
Beginning a Career
After short term experiences working as an Assistant Illustrator at The Halton Region Conservation Authority, in Milton Ontario and as an Assistant Animator at Atkinsons Film Arts, in Ottawa, I was offered my first full time position as an Animator / Graphic Artist / Illustrator / Researcher and Artist in the Schools in Northern Ontario.
Moving to Northern Ontario
To be updated soon