Bio

Heather Buchanan is a painter with an ever-evolving art practice, living and working in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

She wrote these first two sentences in third person, feels awkward about it, and is now going to switch to first person.

After writing my honours thesis in rhyming verse about a series of life-sized nude self-portraits, I received my BFA Honours in 2012 from the University of Calgary.

I've participated in several group and solo exhibitions in Canada and the USA, though the vast majority of my work gets to the world from my online shop here, or from my Etsy shop.

I've tapped the brakes a bit on freelance work lately, but companies like Simon and Schuster, Virgin, and Netflix have hired me for various artistic purposes, and I illustrated an award-winning cover for the Globe and Mail. You can see some of my freelance portraits or other freelance work. If you want to hire me for a project, please get in touch!

Some of my newer work uses portraiture to explore uncomfortable mental states and the ways we cope with this wacky old world around us. I invent artificial sitters and imbue them with chaotic anxiety. While the panic seeps through their faces, these figures desperately attempt to act as if nothing is wrong. If you'd like to see more of this work, you can check out the other portfolios I don't update enough.

Lately (at least at the time of writing this, but we know I wont update it for three years) I've been making a lot of watercolour paintings that involve a lot of text. I've been wanting to explore this stronger narrative element in my work. I've also been working on Horror Scoops as a little side project and am excited to see where that goes.

Photo: Mike Tan