Agamjot Singh was born in Ottawa, Canada, 1991. He there began experimenting from the young age of 3 in gouache paintings & ball point pen drawings. He honed his creativity throughout primary school, making collage type volumes (made of classroom workbooks) of witty cartoon characters to express his feelings & ideas. His grandfather, Bill Buchanan, gave him his first lesson in painting. “Start with a dark black canvas, gently add some colour & see what begins to appear”.

In high school, he developed an ear & eye for hip-hop culture. Influenced by older street artists in his neighbourhood, he tried his own hand at the art form. Here he grasped colour harmony, design & lettering. He quickly learned to use aerosol paint & opaque paint markers to craft Graffiti art canvases. Once adept at the method, he sold these to his peers at school. Before he knew it, many were requesting a custom piece with their name in colourful bold letters. Fresh out of school in 2009, he was hired for one of his first jobs at DeSerres art department store. There he connected with local artists, curators & clients. He absorbed different view points on art, world travel, business & how to use a variety of fine arts supplies. He explored abstracts, calligraphy, portraits, bold colour with brush & poetry. His paintings were displayed, with the help of Basement Artist's curation, at local eateries & nightclubs in the city. Influenced by the Ottawa Visual Art & Spoken Word scene of the time, he grew into a modern Bohemian. In his spare time, he attended traditional Charles Bargue Atelier & life drawing classes.

After a period of college education in Environmental Studies & some Soul-searching (began to practice the Sikh lifestyle in 2013), he enrolled in the Ottawa School of Art in 2015. There he gained confidence in his aesthetic & technique as an oil painter. He showed a natural affinity for Fauvism & Post-Impressionism. Without realizing the genre he was emulating, his teacher, Lucia De Marinis commented “these paintings remind me so much of Cezanne”. Upon further research, he discovered he’d been creating colourful paintings in the style of the“Post-Impressionists”. He began to develop his personal approach as a“Modern-Post-Impressionist” painter and abstract expressionist, focusing on the Buddha as a primary subject. In Winter 2016 he moved to Toronto, Ontario to pursue every opportunity in a new city. Combining his Environmental education with his art practice, Agamjot invested in 100% Natural Earth Paint. He exclusively uses this safer oil medium to avoid heavy metals & harmful toxins, for himself & the planet. He continues to build a niche of colourful “Modern-Post-Impressionist” landscape & figure paintings + abstract expressionism on canvas.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

"Colour is an enrichment for the soul"