I was born and raised in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Stephen being the anglocized version of Etienne - an ancestor (Le Blanc family) of mine and the first child born there. I return not only to visit my family, but also with the purpose of painting the place and taking photos for subsequent paintings.

Home is a strange concept for someone like me; I move around every few years and quite simply don't have a home, it's just the term I use to describe the place I'm from because that's as close to an accurate description of the word "home" as I'm likely to ever have. Newfoundland is really my magnetic north and returning there is as much about re-setting my compass as gathering brilliant painting material.

I’m unsure of the exact degrees of longitude and latitude I’m inhabiting these days, but the city is called Doha, it’s the capital of Qatar and I (luckily) find myself in the heart of the rapidly developing art community - Waqif Art Center. I always thought it would be interesting to live somewhere radically different from my home and, with world events and conflicts being what they are, I’m happy to be living in an Islamic country, surrounded by creative people and forming my own ideas with open eyes. It’s one of the benefits of my inherent restlessness.