Through oil painting, I explore the emotional connection between place, memory, and the human experience...

Biography

Payam Pooyafar is an Iranian-Canadian painter whose work explores memory, place, light, and the emotional narratives embedded within everyday experiences.

Born in Rasht, a city in northern Iran known for its rich cultural heritage and lush landscapes, Pooyafar demonstrated a passion for drawing and painting from an early age. By the age of twelve, he began studying under local artists, developing a strong foundation in classical painting techniques and oil painting. Following his early exhibition experiences, he embarked on a self-directed artistic journey, continually refining his voice through independent study and experimentation.

After immigrating to Canada, Pooyafar found profound inspiration in the dramatic landscapes, wildlife, and cultural identity of Newfoundland and Labrador. The province's rugged coastlines, changing weather, and deep connection to the sea became recurring influences within his work. During this period, he created some of his most recognized paintings, including The Last Supper of Puffins, a work that resonated strongly with collectors and audiences throughout the province.

His paintings draw from a broad range of artistic traditions, combining the technical discipline of classical realism with the atmospheric sensitivity of Impressionism and the expressive freedom of contemporary painting. Through layered glazing, heavy impasto, abrasion, and surface reconstruction, Pooyafar creates richly textured works that reward close observation and invite emotional engagement.

Alongside his artistic practice, Pooyafar holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. His scientific background informs a unique approach to painting—one that balances technical precision with creative intuition and reflects a deep fascination with structure, process, material behavior, and craftsmanship.

In 2020, he was awarded the Provincial Arts and Letters Award for Senior Visual Arts in Newfoundland and Labrador. His work has since entered private collections across Canada and internationally.

Now based in Windsor, Ontario, Pooyafar continues to develop a new body of work exploring landscape, memory, identity, and the enduring relationship between people and place as he prepares for future exhibitions and expanding public engagement.
The Last Supper of Puffins

Art Statement

Painting, for me, begins with a simple and timeless impulse: the desire to leave a mark.

Across cultures and throughout history, human beings have turned to images as a way of understanding themselves and their place in the world. I see my own practice as part of that continuum. Through painting, I seek to create spaces for reflection, connection, and contemplation—works that transcend the immediacy of everyday life and speak to something enduring within the human experience.

My paintings are driven by an ongoing fascination with light, atmosphere, and mood. Whether depicting wildlife, landscapes, architecture, or imagined narratives, I am less interested in documenting a subject than in revealing the emotional resonance that exists beneath its surface. The subject becomes a vessel through which broader themes of memory, resilience, belonging, and transformation can be explored.

Materiality plays a central role in my work. I am deeply engaged with the physical process of painting and the expressive possibilities of oil as a medium. Through layers of glazing, impasto, scraping, sanding, and reconstruction, I allow the painting to evolve organically, embracing both refinement and imperfection. The resulting surfaces carry traces of their own history, mirroring the way personal and collective experiences accumulate over time.

I view painting as both a craft and a lifelong pursuit of mastery. Each work represents an attempt to balance technical precision with emotional authenticity, creating images that invite viewers to pause, look closely, and establish their own relationship with the painting. Ultimately, my goal is not merely to depict the world as it appears, but to evoke the atmosphere, memory, and feeling of having experienced it.

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