Valentine

About Valentine

This contemporary surrealistic painting is by Toni Hamel.

The Canadian artist’s imaginative artwork is rooted in storytelling that is often wrapped in humour to convey important messages about topics like societal standards and the status of our natural environment. Toni Hamel’s work has an impressive international following, and her artwork has graced the walls of both public and noteworthy private collections. The comical imagery in this oil painting features a male and female figure (dressed in vintage clothing) and an overtly large red and white tulip. The flower is tied to a line that is being hoisted by the male and is suspended in front of the female, who is holding the massive bloom. Hamel’s style has been influenced by both surrealism and neo-classicism. The colour palette for this painting is vivid and contemporary—blue, green, golden yellow, white and red.

”It (Valentine) is an example of how I like to exaggerate the scale of some elements in order to render the concept more clearly or to emphasize the absurdity of a scene. The 'blood tulip' is a recurrent theme in my work, used both for its unusual colourings and for the fact that it is now almost completely extinct.” Toni Hamel

Toni Hamel was born in Italy in 1961. In the early 1980’s she acquired a BFA from the Accademia di Belle Arti of Lecce in Italy. Upon arriving in Canada, she furthered her studies and attained a post-graduate Certificate in Computer Graphics from Sheridan College (Canada, 1991).
The recipient of several awards, among others, she received the Golden Key National Honour Society Award from the University of Toronto (Specialist Programme in Psychology, 1997) and the Lubiam Prize (Milan, 1983).
Her work has been exhibited in public and commercial galleries in Canada, the USA, and Europe. It is included in the public collections of Mr. J.J. Abrams, Ms. Whoopi Goldberg, Ms. Julia Roberts, the Archives of Ontario/Government of Ontario, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, the Omer DeSerres corporation, as well as many private international collections. Toni Hamel lives and works in Kingston, Ontario.