JC Lee is a Hamilton / Norfolk County, Ontario artist creating contemporary mixed media textured relief artworks that span magical realism, surrealism and abstraction, drawing inspiration from real landscapes, nature and the human experience.
His passion for art started during his childhood in Malaysia where he learned the basics of painting using watercolour. After a long hiatus from painting as other life pursuits including moving to Canada became a priority, JC's passion for art was rekindled by the beauty of the varied landscapes and wildlife in Norfolk County, Ontario while vacationing in Turkey Point. He now splits his creative time between his Turkey Point cottage and Hamilton home, where he lives with his husband and two dogs.
JC returned to painting in 2010, switching to an oil medium and gradually adding mixed media dimensional forms to his repertoire using self-taught techniques. His signature style combines dimensional relief with layered textures, created using media such as molding paste, paintbrush fibres, and sand. He also blends mica powder with richly coloured oil paints, adding a shimmer that brings his artworks to life and is best appreciated in person.
Artist Statement
I draw inspiration from the world around me, transforming personal experiences, thoughts, feelings, cultural influences and observations into visual narratives.
My artistic practice centres on dimensional texture and mixed media relief, integrating material, surface and form as essential elements of visual expression. Through a deliberate yet intuitive process, I layer and manipulate diverse media to create richly textured surfaces and sculptural reliefs that engage with light, shadow and spatial depth. Mica plays a distinctive role in my work, introducing a shimmer that enlivens the surface and enhances the interplay of texture, colour and form.
Extending beyond the traditional two dimensional plane, my work brings together texture, relief and light to create a distinctive visual language, giving each artwork a tangible presence and a dynamic relationship with its surroundings.