I just wanted to tell you more about us here at Chris In B.C. My name is Christian Ouellet and I was born and raised in Quebec. Throughout my youth I moved around Canada, in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. I always wanted to come back to B.C. As it always called to me, although other places in Canada can be so beautiful the oceans, mountains, sea air, awesome people and just shear energy of this province always was in my mind.
I had various jobs and projects throughout my life from emergency room tech in Calgary, working in the restaurant business as server, chef and finally owning my own Café and catering company in Wakefield, Quebec in the 1990's. From there I joined my partner Mark in his real estate career as a real estate agent and broker in the Outaouais region of Quebec.
After 15 long years in the real estate business I/we realized that we needed a change. The stress of a job which yes had a lot of great moments but also came with so many challenges and at times negativity was telling on our physical and mental well being.
When COVID 19 hit in 2020 it put a lot of things in perspective for both myself and Mark. Life is short and we wanted to pursue our passions. We were also ready to sell our home that we loved and felt that we were both being called to finally move back to B.C. So, much to the surprise of many of our friends and family, we decided to take the plunge and during the summer of 2020 despite Covid raging around us we sold, bought a little place in Nanaimo, B.C. (just through the Internet with help of friends already in Nanaimo that went to visit) packed up our belongings and off we went.
One friend from Wakefield said to us “Why are you running away, you won't solve any problems by doing that”. This gave us a very brief pause but we realized that we were running towards our future not away from anything. Recreating ourselves in a new surrounding, starting a new chapter in our lives and settling in a province that both Mark and I always had wanted to return to just seemed so right.
Without ANY doubt, now we both see that this was one of the best things we have ever done in our lives. Yes it was a bit scary and we were sad to move away from so many friends and family (we miss you all) but it was so exciting. Nanaimo already feels so much like home, and we know that this is where we are meant to be.
Upon arriving we did take a full year sabbatical to explore our new surroundings and mediate on our next steps. One thing for certain was that we both wanted only to do things that we were passionate about and live as positively as possible. And so we have!
Opening this online art market has been a real challenge. Although we have had experience as successful entrepreneurs, marketing real estate and honing our people skills over the years we did not have much experience in e-commerce but seeing the huge potential and exploding growth of online shopping happening we could not resist going for it.
At first Mark started an online drop shipping Garden Store as gardening was one of his passions but he realized that this was not the way he wanted to go (se his brief below for more). At this point I had started to paint more than I had in the past, I was so inspired by the beauty and energy that was all around me on our explorations. I started with Shack Island a truly inspirational work. I had always painted reality paintings in the past but this was a new way to express myself using bold colours in blocks and that just somehow felt right. From there I feel I have morphed the two styles of Impressionism and Realism to create a new way for me to paint.
At one point Mark and I were having a chat and we both realized why not create an online art market, as several friends asked me if they could somehow buy prints of my work. This idea grew to become what we offer now. Yes some of it is commercial art but I think that this is a way artists may need to explore in order to offset the difficulties of making a living just by selling original works. Online shopping is increasingly the way to promote oneself and products that we can make.
Combining an online market to sell merchandise and create new ways of expressing my art seems also to be the right path. I hope you all see it that way. In this way I can share a piece of myself with many people and we can offer products that we are proud to promote.
I had various jobs and projects throughout my life from emergency room tech in Calgary, working in the restaurant business as server, chef and finally owning my own Café and catering company in Wakefield, Quebec in the 1990's. From there I joined my partner Mark in his real estate career as a real estate agent and broker in the Outaouais region of Quebec.
After 15 long years in the real estate business I/we realized that we needed a change. The stress of a job which yes had a lot of great moments but also came with so many challenges and at times negativity was telling on our physical and mental well being.
When COVID 19 hit in 2020 it put a lot of things in perspective for both myself and Mark. Life is short and we wanted to pursue our passions. We were also ready to sell our home that we loved and felt that we were both being called to finally move back to B.C. So, much to the surprise of many of our friends and family, we decided to take the plunge and during the summer of 2020 despite Covid raging around us we sold, bought a little place in Nanaimo, B.C. (just through the Internet with help of friends already in Nanaimo that went to visit) packed up our belongings and off we went.
One friend from Wakefield said to us “Why are you running away, you won't solve any problems by doing that”. This gave us a very brief pause but we realized that we were running towards our future not away from anything. Recreating ourselves in a new surrounding, starting a new chapter in our lives and settling in a province that both Mark and I always had wanted to return to just seemed so right.
Without ANY doubt, now we both see that this was one of the best things we have ever done in our lives. Yes it was a bit scary and we were sad to move away from so many friends and family (we miss you all) but it was so exciting. Nanaimo already feels so much like home, and we know that this is where we are meant to be.
Upon arriving we did take a full year sabbatical to explore our new surroundings and mediate on our next steps. One thing for certain was that we both wanted only to do things that we were passionate about and live as positively as possible. And so we have!
Opening this online art market has been a real challenge. Although we have had experience as successful entrepreneurs, marketing real estate and honing our people skills over the years we did not have much experience in e-commerce but seeing the huge potential and exploding growth of online shopping happening we could not resist going for it.
At first Mark started an online drop shipping Garden Store as gardening was one of his passions but he realized that this was not the way he wanted to go (se his brief below for more). At this point I had started to paint more than I had in the past, I was so inspired by the beauty and energy that was all around me on our explorations. I started with Shack Island a truly inspirational work. I had always painted reality paintings in the past but this was a new way to express myself using bold colours in blocks and that just somehow felt right. From there I feel I have morphed the two styles of Impressionism and Realism to create a new way for me to paint.
At one point Mark and I were having a chat and we both realized why not create an online art market, as several friends asked me if they could somehow buy prints of my work. This idea grew to become what we offer now. Yes some of it is commercial art but I think that this is a way artists may need to explore in order to offset the difficulties of making a living just by selling original works. Online shopping is increasingly the way to promote oneself and products that we can make.
Combining an online market to sell merchandise and create new ways of expressing my art seems also to be the right path. I hope you all see it that way. In this way I can share a piece of myself with many people and we can offer products that we are proud to promote.