Stephanie Pehar is a visual artist who works primarily with watercolor and photography. Inspired by the beauty of the natural world, she loves capturing nature portraits, drawing on the emotion and wisdom gained throughout her journey of self-discovery.
A photographer since 2007, Stephanie’s portraiture often blurs the line between paintings and photographs. Her work has a vivid and painterly style, capturing the duality of dark and light while evoking contrasting feelings of vulnerability and strength. Collaborations with body painters help bring her surreal photographic concepts to life, embracing the creative freedom offered by this unique medium.
Since rekindling her early passion for painting in 2020, Stephanie has focused on exploring watercolor, creating portraits of birds, animals, botanicals, and humans. Previously working out of Toronto, she currently resides in Saint-Lazare, a small town just west of Montreal, with her partner Simon.
From the outside looking in, my life looked pretty good. I was married, living in a big city and doing work that I loved. However, the reality was that despite reaching many of those cliche milestones, inside I felt an immense emptiness and restlessness. I had come to realize that somewhere along the way I had lost myself. It felt like pieces of me were missing.
I’ve always felt like a bit of a misfit – like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. Growing up, I had a hard time relating to others and struggled to fit in. I wanted nothing more than to just feel “normal” and like I belonged… so I began storing pieces of myself away. Every time I came across a piece of myself that didn’t quite fit, I took it and hid it deep down in the shadows. I kept shushing that little voice, (you know that little voice?) until one day I couldn’t keep it quiet any longer and everything came rushing up to the surface.
I knew I had to make some changes. One of the most difficult was ending a marriage of over 10 years, but I knew in my bones that it was holding both of us back from the next chapter of the story. I desperately needed to wipe away the dust and focus on getting to know this fragmented person I had been neglecting for most of my life, and start living as my true authentic self.
Here began the journey to find the missing pieces.
I was truly on my own for the first time, and the years that followed were some of the most difficult and challenging. Throughout my journey, some pieces were found through curiosity, and some through painful trials. I’m grateful to the people I’ve met along the way that have handed me very important pieces that I wouldn’t have otherwise easily found. Slowly, I began piecing myself back together, and that feeling of emptiness started to fade away….
One of the most significant discoveries was learning that I’m a highly-sensitive introvert, with the rarest personality type known as INFJ (only 1-2% of the population). This helped me to understand that I am actually wired much differently from most people and my struggle to fit in and relate to others now started to make sense. I realized there wasn’t anything wrong with me… and I’m not alone.
As I’ve embraced my true self and allowed myself to be honest and vulnerable with others, it has made connection so much easier.
I no longer feel empty.
There are still a lot more pieces to find, but the journey never really ends does it?
Join me as I continue on my journey — maybe you’ll find some pieces here that you’ve been missing?
For commissions, collaborations, licensing, purchasing artwork, or just to say hi — please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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