Christian Cardell Corbet
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Christian Cardell Corbet PPCPA, CGAM, ISA, SAA, FRSA. (b. January 31, 1976) is a Canadian painter, sculptor and designer.
Born at Pickering Beach, Ontario, he was raised by his paternal grandparents the late A. J. Corbet III and Alice Charlotte Corbet (nee Gould), the Corbet's having decended from a prominent English family from the Guernsey Channel Isles. He developed a strong interest in the fine arts while working with his grandfather on commercial signs at a very young age. Due to ill health by the age of 14 he was not able to participate in regular sports like most children his age so his grandparents strongly encouraged him to paint and sculpt. Being raised on the shores of Lake Ontario he always held a close fascination with water, water formations and its power which to this very day has become a main theme for his paintings.
In 1991 the artist moved to Guelph, Ontario and studied at the University of Guelph, in 1994 he moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to open his first studio where he started selling his paintings as an amateur artist. In the spring of 1995 his painting entitled: "Elizabeth Holding Her Ribbon" a portrait of the Queen Mother was acquired by the Queen Mother for her private collection and on 4th July he presented the portrait at the Queen Mother's private residence at Clarence House, England. At that time he became a professional artist receiving many portrait commissions due to vast international publicity. On March 7th 1997 Corbet founded Canada's first official portrait academy the "Canadian Portrait Academy" which was lauded by Governor General Roméo LeBlanc among many other Canadian notables. During this time he was also exploring abstract and non-objective art and created two large murals for the North Vancouver School Board which was largely influenced by his friend and colleague the late Jack Shadbolt, RCA. Theses two murals were largely abstract works and have since been destroyed.
Working primarily in a realist form, he has made a large body of work depicting "ice themes" namely icebergs, ice floes and pressure ice. These paintings have made him well-known within North America but it is his finely executed sculptures, in particular art medallions, that he is well-known for. These rare art forms, generally less than 10" in diameter and created in bronze, wax and mixed media has brought the artist international acclaim with the artist having been collected by major art galleries and museums the world over. Some of which he is the first Canadian born artist to be represented in their permanent collections.
From 1996 to 1997 he studied at McMaster University at Hamilton, Ontario in the anatomy laboratories in order to gain greater knowledge of the human form which he believes has taught him not only about the human body but also the spiritual aspect of the human as a being. During this time he was a private student of the noted Canadian sculptor Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook, where she introduced the artist to the art medallion.
In 2000 the artist moved back to Ontario to take care of his aging grandmother who raised him and there he spent many hours sculpting and painting along the waterfront. It was then that the artist started to study Theosophy more and reflected on his iceberg themes in a more spiritual manner. In the same year he founded his important private art collection, the "Corbet Collection of Canadian Women Artists" which serves as an educational visual tool to help teach people about the importance of women's roles in Canadian art history. This collection was influenced by the artist's close friendships with many of Canada's more important women artists who saw themselves as having been overshadowed by their male counterparts. In 2003 he had a solo exhibition documenting his 10 year retrospective which was well received. Between 2000 - 2003 the artist created some of his very best paintings and sculptures.
In 2003 the artist accepted the position of Forensic Artist at the University of Western Ontario where he reconstructed the facial image of a 2,200 year old Egyptian mummy based on CT and laser scans, a first in forensic history. This work, a life-size sculpture, brought the artist even greater international acclaim and was featured in a two part documentary on the Discovery Channel. The official unveiling of this facial reconstruction occurred the night his beloved grandmother was dying so the artist was absent from the auspicious event despite her wishes that he attend. The artist's grandmother passed away early the following morning.
Currently the artist continues to develop his iceberg themes as well as work on portrait medallions. As of early 2006 a colossal oil on canvas was created for the international charity World Vision for which he is a patron. He is also known as a 'mentor' to many aspiring artists around the world freely giving advice and more importantly encouraging their dreams and aspirations in all endeavours of life.
Corbet's recent works include a relief sculpture for the Cumberland County Museum and Archives of Hon. R B Dickey (1811-1903) which was lauded by the Premier of Nova Scotia Hon. Rodney MacDonald. Other recent medallion commissions include: Laura Muntz Lyall; Dr, William Bauld; Sir Charles Tupper among many others.
Some of Corbet's more noted subjects include Dame Jane Goodall CBE, DBE; F. H. Varley; Dorothy Livesay; Dr. Jane Addams NPP; Dr. Jean Coulthard OC; Col. George Stanley, OC, Margaret Atwood; Gutzon Borglum; Louis Riel; H. C. Chadderton OC; Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook CC among many others. Corbet's works have been collected by over 30 international art galleries and museums and is represented in numerous publications to include "Canadian Who's Who", "Who's Who in Canada" among others world wide.
An interesting note is that the artist's career is that he sculpts or paints in his late grandmother's name "Alice" in all his works since her passing in January 2004 often almost completely hidden but making for viewers of his work to seek the name of the woman who meant so very much to him.
External links
- Christian Cardell Corbet's official web site is: [christiancardellcorbet.com]
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