William Peltier (Ancaster, ON)
Fallen Tree Branch with Stage Five Decay - Anselm Kiefer’s Dilemma, 2022. Archival coloured pencil drawing on paper, 12 x 15.5 in. (30.5 x 39.4 cm).
Bio
William Peltier was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1961 and currently resides in Hamilton, Ontario. He is both a music composer and visual artist. His music has been performed in cities such as Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton, Ottawa, Guelph, Quebec, Montreal, Victoria, New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prishtina, Havana, and Buenos Aires. Since 2020, Peltier’s primary focus has been in the visual arts. In the past year, he participated in the Hamilton Plein Air Festival, garnering an honourable mention and his work was selected for the Colour and Form Society Exhibition in Toronto, In the summer of 2026, Peltier will embark on his first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Bancroft. His practice focuses on depictions of nature with an intense forensic eye. These enigmatic drawings contain a vibrancy of colours, textures, and subtleties that invite the viewer to engage in a uniquely intimate world.
Artist Statement
Thinking of our most memorable experiences with nature, we may recollect moments where we have taken a step back to observe vast, grandiose landscapes with a sense of awe. Conversely, I take a few steps forward to view the intricacies of nature with an intensely forensic eye. In doing this, I create depictions of nature that are rich with complex textures, colours, and subtleties. Such details invite the viewer to embark on an intimate, ‘slow looking’ journey. I find infinite fascination with this small world so close to the ground, so close to us.
These enigmatic drawings, which are primarily created using archival coloured pencils on paper, often demonstrate the intrinsic connections between nature and humanity. Themes I may explore include the wonderment of life, survival's battle scars, death and decay, and the symbiotic relationships between life and death / order and chaos.
I often employ an ‘allover’ technique where all the details of the work have equal importance, obscuring the foreground-background relationship and promoting a heightened awareness of the many layers of imagery. It also introduces an element of ambiguity where the viewer’s experience of the work may not be cohesive and knowable.
“We don't know why we are here.
We don't know where we are going.
We have the intellect to try to find out, but we cannot.
It's quite desperate."
- Anselm Kiefer