About the Artist:

Born in Montréal in 1954, Blair’s early life can best be described as nomadic, with frequent moves across Canada and overseas. He arrived in Ottawa in 1973.

His childhood interest in art as a means of investigating the universe became serious in his teens. He went on to complete his ‘A’ Level in Fine Art (University of London Board) at Kent School, Germany and a special Post ‘A’ Fine Arts Programme while living in Düsseldorf, Germany from 1971–73, followed by studies at the Ottawa School of Art (then the Ottawa Municipal Art Centre), notably with distinguished artists Richard Gorman (1935–2010) and James Boyd (1928–2002).

In a career spanning five decades, Sharpe has exhibited widely, with numerous solo shows in Ottawa and Toronto, including a major mid-career survey at the Ottawa Art Gallery in 1989 as well as group shows across Canada and abroad. His most recent solo exhibition was New Paintings at Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, in 2013.

His work is represented in many public, corporate and private collections. Public commissions include the mural Ouananiche at the Jack Purcell Community Centre and a floor work, River's Invitation at the Smyth Transitway Station in Ottawa.

In 2011 he was awarded an Honorary Diploma in Fine Arts by the graduating class of the Ottawa School of Art where he has taught for many years. In 2014 the OSA recognized him for 40 Years of Excellence for his contribution to art education in Ottawa.

A gifted colourist, Sharpe’s work is rooted in the rigorous traditions of formal abstract painting while maintaining a strong affinity to nature and natural process. His most recent works, the extended On Some Faraway Beach series, focus on the physical and formal structures that make up his compositions and simultaneously allude to the spaces, edges and boundaries between known and unknown, near and far, real and imagined and so on—a place of searching, reflection and contemplation.