“Free Dive,” by Jean Louis Courteau, 36 x 24


“Waterscape,” by Jean Louis Courteau, 16 x 20

Courteau is a self-described, hard-core plein air painter, having painted landscapes in Canada since high school. In the year 2000, Courteau took Scuba diving lessons in Honduras and the experience forever changed his life as an artist. Diving afforded him the opportunity to see plays of light in water that were completely different from what he perceived on dry land. His first major dive work in underwater landscapes was created in in 2003, and since then he has been using graphite sketches, oil studies, and his own poetry—some of it created while he underwater during dives—as source material for his larger studio paintings.


“Crystal,” by Jean Louis Courteau, 50 x 30


“Grand Bleu,” by Jean Louis Courteau, 18 x 36

“The Art of the Dive: Portraits of the Deep” has been produced by David J. Wagner L.L.C. (www.dividjwagnerllc.com) and features work by leading artists who portray underwater life forms and habitats, including Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006), Kent Ullberg, Diane Peebles, Wyland, and Eric Berg among others. The exhibition will travel to The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas (January 14-March 11, 2012); The Wildlife Experience Museum in Parker (Denver), Colorado. (March 24 - July 15, 2012).