Canadian-Armenian Artist Pareghamian’s Adventurous Travels Around the World
Gerard Paraghamian is one of Canada’s most versatile, widely published artists having produced hundreds of works of Canadian cities, landscapes and international landscapes and cityscapes.
Gerard was the Official Artist of the Toronto SkyDome and Vancouver’s Expo ’86. His “Neibourhoods” paintings donated to Unicef was Canada’s top selling art card for the United Nations Children’s Fund. His sophisticated and detailed representations of city waterfronts such as Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, New-York, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami and Los Angeles have emerged as evidence of his unique and widely recognized talents. His work also portrays such scenes as landscapes of the Canadian terrain, including the Rocky Mountains, the Prairies, Ontario wilderness, the St. Lawrence Valley and the Maritimes. His renditions are a reflection, perhaps of his childhood years on the French Riviera. Born in Nice, France where many of the famous impressionist artists painted. He spent his early years surrounded by the beauty and excitement of the Cote d’Azur.
– A COLD NEW LAND- GERARD’S ARRIVAL IN CANADA- THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE:
Paraghamian who is of ARMENIAN DESCENT immigrated with his parents to Toronto. It was here that art, which has always been his preoccupation became his consuming passion. Not being sure of himself and having doubts about making a living out of art, he enrolled at Ryerson Polytechnical School in a three year engineering course which he left after six months. Realizing that science, chemistry, math and calculus were not very friendly to him, he found employment repairing microscopes in hospitals, that paid the bills but art always haunted him. Gerard finally applied for admission at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and barely made the entrance grade as his portfolio at the time consisted of a few sketches and a couple of mediocre paintings. Taking the advertising course to insure a job in ad agencies and bread on the table, he found himself knocking on doors with no avail. “I didn’t understand it” he says, they all wanted experience, so I said at my last interview, “Well give me the job and I’ll gain the experience”, that apparently did not go very well and was politely escorted to the door. By some miracle an agency was looking for a free lance artist and being at the right place at the right time Gerard got the job and ended up as a full time art director in Canada’s second largest ad agency. After ten years in the industry and being disillusioned with what advertising was all about, he left the ad business and went on his own freelancing as an art studio. That lasted 18 years, “That gave me a sense of freedom to travel and photograph the world” he says. He trekked in sixty countries in six of the seven continents, ascended Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, made it to the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal, photographed the Andes in South America. Travelling through the USSR I sold jeans that were a hot item at the time, not being able to leave with more money that I came in with, the abundance of caviar and vodka never tasted so good. I was able to smuggle a Russian Army belt that I still wear to this day. While in India, Paraghamian painted a canvas of the Taj Mahal and gave the work to a friend that had offered emotional support for his travels. “I was robbed and left by the road side” he says, “that is when you appreciate life as never before”. He witnessed the poverty of the world, the plight of the sick and hungry and wondered what it was all about. “The central facet of my life was life itself”. What ended this frantic travelling madness was being taken very far away in a second in the water by an undercurrent in Cuba. The water was absolutely calm, I started to feel very cold and too weak to swim back. The only thought that came to mind was, “I prayed that I would go down fast, this way I would not feel much pain”. Being the religious type and always believing in miracles, one lonely wave gently pushed me all the way back to shore. Miracles do happen, believe it. Gerard says, “I always end up my story about my travels this way. To this day, I have not been in the water except to take a bath”.
– THE PROJECTS AND COMMISSIONS:
What catapulted Gerard in the art publishing industry was again by chance. On a warm summer evening on a friend’s sail boat he decided to do a painting of the waterfront, calling it, “On the waterfront – Toronto”, it was published and became the best selling poster, it went into 3 printings. This was followed by many waterfronts of major cities in North America. It was only normal to put all this labour of love into books. Two art books were published containing some 1000 pages of Gerard’s work entitled, ” Gerard Paraghamian ‘An artist’s journey’ “Some 10.000 words of personal reflection make up the text of the art books. Working in multi- media, (a mixture of oils, acrylics, water colours and pen and ink), he has produced hundreds of paintings of many countries that were published in posters, prints, limited edition prints, art cards calendars and all items for the gift industry including T-shirts, decorative plates etc. He discusses a variety of topics that describe his growing acquaintance with Canada and his understanding of this land of human diversity, immense natural beauty and often puzzling hesitancy for its future. A sensitive observer of life around him is how he describes himself. Gerard paints in words as well as pictures, describing the journey that he has witnessed of himself and his adopted country in the half century since his arrival in Canada.
