A photograph of Courtenay posing with one of her favourite landscape paintings of the Rocky Mountains

Courto Art

Courtenay May is an artist based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada — where the winters are long, the mountains are far away, and she paints them anyway.

She started art classes at twelve at the Ortona Armoury Art Gallery with Jimmy Golden.

Courtenay studied Fine Arts briefly at the University of Alberta, where she built her technical foundation and explored impressionist landscapes, abstracts, and portraits. She carried this into her own style. Her work features bold colours, confident brushstrokes, and influences from Van Gogh, Monet, the Group of Seven, Rothko, Degas, and Warhol.

Courto Art grew from her love of nature and painting. Many of her landscape pieces come from photos taken on hikes and outdoor trips over the years — whether it’s a big adventure or just a moment that caught her eye.

This space features both sold and available work, reflecting Courtenay’s ongoing creative practice in acrylic and oil.

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Available Collection

SHOP INVENTORY

In Action

Working progress...

Check out a sneak peek of Courtenay's works in progress, along with time-lapses that reveal her creative process in action.

How Monday to Friday Jobs Starve Creativity

I recently left my automotive career as a service advisor. A career that I never anticipated having, which I simply stumbled upon. After 9 years, I was slow to fully learn the weight a job like this can take on your creative edge. There is always that dream of becoming a full-time artist, which arguably is not always sustainable. But when a job ultimately just pays the bills and exhausts so much energy, it is hard not to wonder if the money is worth the sacrifice of passion t

1 day ago2 min read

Does Art Have to Have Meaning

I don’t believe art has to be some complicated thing that only a privileged few can decipher. It can mean different things to different people—or it doesn’t have to mean anything at all. Art can evoke a feeling or a mood, or it can simply be created for the joy of making something, for the fun of getting your hands dirty. Even stylistically, though it can be critiqued on form, depth, and detail, there are aspects of creating that warrant no assessment. Sometimes art just exi

Nov 30, 20251 min read

A Series of Thoughts on 'Being' and Artist

It can be quite challenging to monetize your art. A lot of this is “learn as you go”—from designing a website to taking pictures of paintings in the perfect lighting, where the varnish doesn’t reflect weirdly off the image. Then there’s Instagram, Facebook, story posts, reels… it can all be pretty overwhelming. I see jokes about this on reels all the time—how “everything is content,” and how it’s often less about creating the art than marketing it. This has all been a fun lea

Nov 20, 20252 min read