artitudes

Maurice Paradise

The Making of an Artist
acrylic paint on canvas

Maurice Paradise was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but grew up in East Vancouver. He is French and Irish-Canadian, always full of life and living it to the fullest.

He left his previous work – mine blasting – which almost took his life and left him with a broken body and little hope for the future. The loss of his mother and father to Alzheimer’s and cancer was a major blow to Maurice and he tried to commit suicide.

Maurice had an out-of-body experience which changed his whole life. “Now I paint because I love to,” he says. “I am self taught, and I am learning every day, and I really enjoy what painting has given me – a second chance in life, or I should say, my third chance in life. I was lucky because I shouldn’t be alive, but I’m a fighter and I don’t give up easily.”

Maurice Paradise

His work has been described by his peers as moving, colorful, creative and very textured. The paint has been layered onto canvas with many brushes and knives, creating a surface that viewers want to touch as well as see. A different painting emerges when lit and seen from different angles, and the works were created to be hung from any direction upward. Maurice ’s favorite artist is Vincent Van Goth.

“As far as I’m concerned, Vincent Van Goth was the world’s most gifted artist.”

Carma Murphy Rogers