I Interpret Subjects Of My Paintings Using Wild And Expressive Colour

My name is Justine Fernie and I am an artist living and working in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. My first love is painting family portraits. What started as a small project for one family, has turned into a full-time career working on a variety of custom commissions. I now paint portraits of many different subjects. While figurative art remains a favourite, I have really come to love painting portraits of dogs as well. Working from photographs, I endeavour to give my interpretation of the subject matter using wild, expressive colour. Sometimes I find a solid black background works best to showcase the subject at hand, while other times I find a colourful background works best.

I have a real and true fascination with the cult of celebrity and have painted many of today's pop culture characters. My latest large scale portrait is of Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her 90th birthday. In addition to my regular use of acrylic paint, I incorporated glitter, rhinestones and pearls into that piece. I use my own way of "tattooing" the skin of my subjects with colour. From a distance, the portraits have a true likeness to their subject matter while up close, they are made up of swirls of every colour imaginable.

More info: justinefernie.com | Instagram