Besner was born in 1965 in North Lancaster, Ontario. He completed his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Montreal in 1992. This early education allowed him to focus his thoughts on the nature of the city and its components. Besner’s creative work is based on a mixed technique on canvas. He has a preference for oil sticks and their rich palette of colours as well as acrylic paint, structural mortar, china marker and aerosol paint. In addition to these materials, he uses a technique of application by the fingers and scraping of the canvas.

The emotional structure of Besner’s work expresses a renewed, richer and deeper view of life, based on line and colour. The resulting depiction is the image of a world in itself, which largely transcends the two dimensional limits of the canvas.

His characters progress towards the future, like all human beings. They are creatures who are torn apart and gnawed by hope.

Besner was born in 1965 in North Lancaster, Ontario. He completed his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Montreal in 1992. This early education allowed him to focus his thoughts on the nature of the city and its components. Besner’s creative work is based on a mixed technique on canvas. He has a preference for oil sticks and their rich palette of colours as well as acrylic paint, structural mortar, china marker and aerosol paint. In addition to these materials, he uses a technique of application by the fingers and scraping of the canvas.

The emotional structure of Besner’s work expresses a renewed, richer and deeper view of life, based on line and colour. The resulting depiction is the image of a world in itself, which largely transcends the two dimensional limits of the canvas.

His characters progress towards the future, like all human beings. They are creatures who are torn apart and gnawed by hope.

 The search for authenticity is what looks for Claude. His workshop is quite “minimalist”, uncluttered and uncontaminated by the presence of computer assisted drawing tools, touch up software or vector based programs, which he used for many years. Now he came back to basics: painting. He works on multiple painting simultaneously. He begins by deconstructing them, than reconstructs them and transforms them. This is done so successfully that he quips “the works will remain in danger until I’ll get them out of the studio”

Claude Le Blanc is a graduate in Fine Arts from the Collège Vieux-Montréal. He exploited several technics and opted for the brush stroke and oil painting. The ink knife scraping quickly across the surface of the material creates a pattern of sound, almost music like. The porous nature of the material allows for beautiful texture as the paint is absorbed.

Born in France – Living and working in Montréal since 2002.
Already passionate about painting when she was very  young, Virginie Bocaert chose to study  fashion at École Supérieure de Mode de Paris.
She graduated with distinction and started working in design but she could not resist the lure of painting.
Her initial steps  in the art world began with representations of the female body emerging from the canvas  in an improbable, abstract  atmosphere. In her oeuvre, in fact, nonfiguration  is not opposed to the figurative but is simply another manifestation, that of  the inner gaze, just as mental and physical are not opposites, they just are. The latest development in her work has taken her toward new mediums such as photography, performance and the wide range of  digital elements that technology is now putting into hands of the artist…

Nathalie Boissonnault was born in 1968 in New Richmond on the Gaspé Coast. Attracted to the arts from childhood, she registered for her first painting course at 11 years of age and painted her first canvas.

A graphic artist by training, she nevertheless followed through on her natural penchant for painting and held her first exhibit in 1992. At that time, she was working as a graphic artist and cartographer at the Department of Natural Resources. In 2001 the desire to live fully the freedom offered by painting became stronger and stronger. She then made the giant leap to quit her job and devote all her time to painting.

Nathalie Boissonnault’s work has gone through several transformations. Today to a certain extent, she is returning to her roots where she explores a more intimate universe, sometimes surrealist. Introspective, she establishes a dialogue between two realities, emotional and timeless, full of theatricality and poetry. Using powerful symbols, she orients the viewer to her or his own internal dialogue.

Carvalho is born in 1965 in Cambucí a municipality of the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He graduated in 1986 in Industrial design and drawing at the University of Rio de Janeiro. Till 1997, he worked in Rio de Janeiro as an artistic director and designer for various advertising agencies. In 1998, he decided to move to São Paulo, where he is still based, to fully dedicate his time to his artistic practice. Since then his work has been shown extensively in Brazil and internationally – in France, Belgium, Germany, USA, Italy, and Japan amongst other, at fairs and in solo and group exhibitions. Amid several awards that recognized the quality and inherent excellence of his work, he was amongst the winner of the Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim New York competition in 2010 and also chosen to be part of the Modern Photographic Exhibition of Brazil created by the Photographic Society of Japan.

As a 7 year old, Lucio, lived on a farm in the interior of Brazil. He was never encouraged to explore art; he always thought that drawing was wrong.

His brother and cousins loved to run, play, and ride bikes; whereas, Lucio only wanted to play by exploring the world of color through drawing.  Instead of playing and running outside with friends he loved to find quiet, hidden places to draw undisturbed.

He often felt guilty and confused to why he had such a passion and uncontrollable desire to express himself through his drawings and paintings.

His fondest memory was at his grandparent’s farm, his favorite place to draw, under a huge banquet table. There he would hang children’s drawings under the wood, so no one would discover his work. 

From his impenetrable hiding place, Lucio could observe all of his surroundings safely.  In front of this enormous table there was a china cabinet, stuffed with porcelain and many souvenirs.

Much of Lucio’s art is encapsulated by these childhood memories.  His creative isolation came from hiding and feeling protected by the warm embrace of tables, cabinets, furniture, China, and souvenirs.  

These things, LOUÇAS, were his closest friends.  Lucio’s art blends his creative, isolated youth with his now liberated, adult self by animating, imitating his greatest life impressions.

Lúcio Carvalho works is inspired by scenography as well as Baroque, Rococo and Renaissance era. Emotion, memory and imaginary archives – fragment from the past, projection of the future – are building the work that needs to be protected because of its fragility, to stay preserve for the future to exist with a certain freedom. Using painting, photography as well as sculpture, Carvalho is not particularly attached to the medium he is using. For him, they can change at any time, they are interchangeable and only at the service of the idea. What is central to his practice is the experimentation, to let them overflow, to express his desire, to materialise his idea with a mix of pleasure in pain, giving him some sort of relief. No matter which medium he is using, all his work is conceived like a painting, layer by layer.

_________________________________________

Collection: LOUÇA-ME (fragile protections)

There is no translation for LOUÇA-ME, this is a poetic license, is the verbalization of an object.

In Portuguese, "LOUÇA" has a sound similar to:

OUÇA: listen...

LOUÇA: tableware ware, china, porcelain

LOUCA: crazy, wild…

Lucio question society 'Is it worth living like a porcelain? Are we really safe? We must feel free!'

Carvalho is born in 1965 in Cambucí a municipality of the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He graduated in 1986 in Industrial design and drawing at the University of Rio de Janeiro. Till 1997, he worked in Rio de Janeiro as an artistic director and designer for various advertising agencies. In 1998, he decided to move to São Paulo, where he is still based, to fully dedicate his time to his artistic practice. Since then his work has been shown extensively in Brazil and internationally – in France, Belgium, Germany, USA, Italy, and Japan amongst other, at fairs and in solo and group exhibitions. Amid several awards that recognized the quality and inherent excellence of his work, he was amongst the winner of the Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim New York competition in 2010 and also chosen to be part of the Modern Photographic Exhibition of Brazil created by the Photographic Society of Japan.

As a 7 year old, Lucio, lived on a farm in the interior of Brazil. He was never encouraged to explore art; he always thought that drawing was wrong.

His brother and cousins loved to run, play, and ride bikes; whereas, Lucio only wanted to play by exploring the world of color through drawing.  Instead of playing and running outside with friends he loved to find quiet, hidden places to draw undisturbed.

He often felt guilty and confused to why he had such a passion and uncontrollable desire to express himself through his drawings and paintings.

His fondest memory was at his grandparent’s farm, his favorite place to draw, under a huge banquet table. There he would hang children’s drawings under the wood, so no one would discover his work. 

From his impenetrable hiding place, Lucio could observe all of his surroundings safely.  In front of this enormous table there was a china cabinet, stuffed with porcelain and many souvenirs.

Much of Lucio’s art is encapsulated by these childhood memories.  His creative isolation came from hiding and feeling protected by the warm embrace of tables, cabinets, furniture, China, and souvenirs.  

These things, LOUÇAS, were his closest friends.  Lucio’s art blends his creative, isolated youth with his now liberated, adult self by animating, imitating his greatest life impressions.

Lúcio Carvalho works is inspired by scenography as well as Baroque, Rococo and Renaissance era. Emotion, memory and imaginary archives – fragment from the past, projection of the future – are building the work that needs to be protected because of its fragility, to stay preserve for the future to exist with a certain freedom. Using painting, photography as well as sculpture, Carvalho is not particularly attached to the medium he is using. For him, they can change at any time, they are interchangeable and only at the service of the idea. What is central to his practice is the experimentation, to let them overflow, to express his desire, to materialise his idea with a mix of pleasure in pain, giving him some sort of relief. No matter which medium he is using, all his work is conceived like a painting, layer by layer.

_________________________________________

Collection: LOUÇA-ME (fragile protections)

There is no translation for LOUÇA-ME, this is a poetic license, is the verbalization of an object.

In Portuguese, "LOUÇA" has a sound similar to:

OUÇA: listen...

LOUÇA: tableware ware, china, porcelain

LOUCA: crazy, wild…

Lucio question society 'Is it worth living like a porcelain? Are we really safe? We must feel free!'

While I am painting, I seek mainly to enter into a state of being. I am motivated by a feeling of freedom and self-forget-fullness. I also have a powerful urge to create a universe which is esthetically pleasing, a world of abundance, both cheerful and somewhat naive, and far removed from the morbid pessimism in which I am engulfed on all sides by contemporary culture, media and art. The universe I construct is based on the garden and the forest.

The process unfolds directly on the canvas, which is usually placed flat on the floor. I move constantly between happenstance and choice. I usually begin with a key figure that impressed me (a bird, a flower). I construct the picture gradually using successive layers of deliberate accident and controlled elements. This results in a combination of drawings, collage, realistic painting, pools of polymer, grand strokes made by large paintbrushes, recoveries, transparency, and minor motifs. It is all part of a composition, in which the void controls the filled spaces and in which I seek to maintain visible traces of each layer, as testimonies to the construction of the work.

Leaving bare spaces on the canvas is something that I admire in several contemporary artists, including François Lacasse, from whom I borrowed the technique of pouring paint onto the canvas and of controlling its movement without brushes, by moving the canvas.

Pictures drawn by children are also frequent in my work. As I teach at the grade school level, I have a wide variety of choices that I can reproduce. The presence of work by children has become increasingly important in my most recent work in which guileless birds are enthroned like kings, the gentle guardians of my universe.

In Celebration of the Human Form… I begin with simple clay and sculpt the torso using the coil building technique. The simplicity of the torso captures the essence of the soul. That, together with the primitive firing techniques of awdust and Raku, brings me back to my South African roots. The beauty of the colors in the clay is created by the intensity of the fire. Each torso comes from the fire with a uniqueness all its own. This element of surprise and individuality celebrates the human form.

In Celebration of Mother Nature… I “dress” the naked form of the torso to represent nature using feathers, branches, leaves, and gemstones. I use semi-precious and rare stones, formed over millions of years. Ancient science tells us that each stone has a symbolic meaning and our eyes detect the unique beauty of what lies within each.

My sculptures reflect my total life experience. Born and raised in South Africa, studied art in the Netherlands, I now reside in the heartland of the USA. These experiences have exposed me to cultural diversity and the beauty of nature.

My work is the expression of the human form… 
and the embodiment of beauty entwined with the powers of Nature.

Costa approaches each painting by exploring the underlying narrative metaphor, and emotion of the Landscape. She embraces the creative process while incorporating the classical training she received at Clayton State University and perfected with years of study with Atlanta’s Chris DiDomizio, best known for his “ Old World Master” techniques.

 A rigorous investigation of critical thinking and innovative use of materials, working with Michael David and the Fine Arts Atelier has honed and expanded the metaphor and emotion in each of these singular and moving works.  

Collectors are drawn to Costa’s classic style and creative spirit. Her exhibitions have been met with great success, most recently in a group exhibition at the Bill Lowe Gallery. 

 Her landscapes, transcendent and transformative, offer the viewer a moment to pause, to breathe and reflect, lifting the viewers spirit while embracing the paintings beauty.

Ilinca Ghibu has been painting for over ten years. Since 2012, she has a studio in Montreal where she maintains a full time studio practice.

Ilinca’s love affair with painting began during a two year sojourn in Paris as a teenager which fostered her interest and appetite in pursuing a career as a visual artist. She pursued her studies in painting and drawing at the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts and The Visual Arts Centre situated in Montreal under the tutelage of several respected artists. She also has degrees in both law and communications that provide her with a strong work ethic and relentless desire to succeed. It is this determination and willpower that have brought her gallery representation and collectors alike.

Micheline Landry was born in Montreal. Even with a diploma in Visual Arts, done after a late return to studies, she considers herself self-taught. All her training and technique were acquired in front of her wall, through a mentor and through various readings dealing with different techniques of oil painting. She also had the chance to have a workshop in the Old Port of Quebec and this is where it all started. Even when she was accepted for a Bachelor’s Degree at Laval University, she needed to be able to run freely while giving herself challenges and also teaching herself. Micheline Landry received a prize for excellence in painting (1996, CASPQ), a grant for creation (1997, CALQ), a first prize by the Museum of Art of Mont-St-Hilaire (1999) and Loto-Québec’s art collection acquired pieces from 2002 to 2014. She also participated in international fair and presented her work in Edinburgh, Italy, New York and London.

She is inspired by details; a trace, a stain, the elements of nature, a word or a vision engendering a discourse. The different materials serve as places where she can oppose the subjects or make them play between them. Her dreamlike atmosphere comes from the coexistence between the abstract and the real. The different oppositions, the materials, the subjects, the techniques, lead to a questioning. She invents places made of parallel times, displacements, condensed or of infinite moments.

Her desires are to offer moments which propose states, contrary matters. Human beings, nature, life, have their two poles (heavy / light, strong / weak, etc.) that serve as a springboard for her. She doesn’t want to fall into the over specific. The different surfaces inspire her and allow her a freedom towards the imaginary, superpositions of places and time. Opposite pencil and oil, wood and paper is a game that allows me a pictorial adventure.

Her work evolves on wood partly muffled and / or plastered. She intervenes on its supports with graphite, coloured pencils, dry pastel and oil. In addition to applying paint, she alters it by removing it, blurring it, scarring it and superimposing it. By this process, she tries to inspire sets of printing and traces. Her pieces often divide into several spaces. Some, where only the pencil remains, seem circumscribed. Others constitute an amalgam of techniques. The intervention will vary according to these places and will make the subject inert or alive.
She wants to free the viewer from his comfort zone. She invites him to venture into an emotional world, although intellectual, dotted with symbolic gestures.

Melissa Del Pinto (B 1979, Montreal, Canada) is a fine-arts painter and muralist best known for her dramatic, large-scale paintings and murals of single-themed, photorealistic birds that take centre stage against a solid-color background. Each oil painting holds a surprising complexity of color, dramatic brushwork, detail and texture, often made contemporary by the skilled use of aerosol paints.

Her background is in Illustration and Design (Dawson College, Montreal, 2001). She further developed her skills in Florence, Italy. She returned to Montreal and spent time in the fashion industry.

Del Pinto is a well-commissioned artist. Her work can be found in corporate, public and private collections. Prestigious establishments such as The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (La Petite du Musée) and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (La Delivrance de L’Aiglon) have commissioned Del Pinto’s works. Del Pinto has also completed murals for organizations such as Starbucks, Shopify, Mad Radish, Kiehl’s, Jansport, Cote Nord Tremblant, Jansport, MU and others.

Del Pinto is listed in the Government of Canada, Canadian Heritage Database of Canadian Artists. A dossier of her work is available  at The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Library and Archives, Canadian Artists Documentation Collection for use by curators, researchers and the public.

Her work has been highlighted in major newspapers and magazines such as Le Devoir, The Montreal Gazette, Le Journal de Montreal, La revue d’art du Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal, Decovér Magazine, Sofadéco, CULT Montreal, Atmosphere Air Transat Magazine… and in numerous online blogs such as – tourism montréal, damasketdentelle and Brazil’s janeladarua.

Originally from Romania, Raluca Pilat hails as an artist that manifests a significant versatility in all aspects of the visual arts. Her diverse portfolio shows her mastery over most mediums, from oil, acrylic and pastel painting to graphics. Her learning journey begins at the Fine Arts High School Nicolae Tonitza, followed by the Fine Arts Academy Nicolae Grigorescu in Bucharest (Arts Baccalaureate in 1989). After her university studies, Raluca worked as an Art professor for more than 12 years. In this role, she was instrumental in aiding many students to explore their talent and evolve their artistic skills. Throughout this period, she also continued her creative work, with her art being displayed at multiple exhibitions and events in Romania and abroad. Her work is part of several collections in Europe and America.

Her technique is imbued with force, vitality and freshness. Her use of color is precise and her touch, sometimes nervous while at other times graceful, is in perfect accord with her chosen themes.

“Mountains and valleys surround the house where I was born. I grew up in fresh air, in a small Irish village, which I left at the age of eighteen. Stoneham saw me grow up, and now the city shapes me. Québec, city of my studies, taught me beauty, taught me art.”

“The elegance and femininity of woman’s bodies have always inspired me aesthetically, with their sensual and gracious curves. This is why they are so often in my paintings. Their long legs symbolize spiritual elevation. I express sensitivity and softness through a hazy atmosphere, because the latter entices introspection and consciousness. The background guides us towards imagination, evasion and a feeling of freedom, the horizon suggesting the line between sky and earth, between here and somewhere else. And you, the viewer, finish the story, which becomes your own.”

Since the beginning of Ancient civilization, the figure of women has personified mythical creatures endowed with divine powers. Mythology is thus an arena for powerful and often feared goddesses. The great book of History is filled with names of exceptional females, women who in no way resemble the emaciated heroines of our modern era. Numerous painters and sculptors have used the awesome figure of woman as their muse. In the image of the potent Greek goddesses as well as the fascinating flowery women created by Mucha, painter Pascale Pratte glorifies woman in all her feminine might, with a decisively modern approach...

With their blase attitudes and their languid gazes, the women created by Pascale Pratte all have one thing in common : a boundless power of seduction. This power is not due to their flawless beauty, but rather to the magnetism that emanates from these subjects. Pascale Pratte manipulates shapes and colors with the agility and the assurance that her training in drawing, sculpting, painting, 3D computer graphics and graphic design have imparted upon her. The physical traits of her subjects are strong, determinant, and proud, not unlike the beautiful heroines of her canvases. Although earth tones dominate most of her paintings, this artist is not afraid to tint her work in shades of blue or red, emphasizing the dramatic, mysterious, and mystic fell of her art. The artist states that she prefers painting which is more textured, more tactile, as she launches herself down a path where realism has the upper hand over graphic interpretation. Obviously, each painting title is a womans name. These names suit these painted females so perfectly that, once they have been baptized by the artist, it is impossible for them to be known as anything different. But this tour de force that Pascale Pratte has so brilliantly accomplished : she as given a unique personality and spirit to each of her subjects. This young painters journey was an undoubtedly swift one.

At the age of 10, she was already profiting from the sale of greeting cards that she had drawn. This first graphic experience was one that she pursued for five years, and it landed her contracts in France and Belgium. After studies and jobs in the world of illustration, painting became a priority. This was an impulse that she knew she could no longer restrain. The response from the public was unanimous : they loved it! Each and every viewer finds themselves or else recognizes someone they know and love in the attitudes and traits of these beautiful and stoic protagonists. * Nathalie Paquin

“Images I create are poems without the words”
– Rubem Robierb

For two decades, Rubem Robierb has worked with poetry, photography and painting to create capturing and visually compelling works of art whose strong symbolism and underlying message induce an emotional response with the beholder and strike on the sensitive nerves of modern society.

Growing up in Maranhão, Brazil, Robierb first artistic expression was poetry, which was followed by photography. His kindling passion for photography led it to become his preferred art form, because, like with poetry, Robierb clearly saw how he could create images that could convey a deeper meaning – and create images that could be read.

After receiving formal photography training while working as a commercial photographer in São Paolo, he was discovered by the French ‘Art et Partage’ association, which helped him debut his first solo photography show in Paris and Aix en Provence.

In 2008 Robierb relocated to Miami to open his studio in the art district Wynwood. In this axis of international and local art galleries mixed with street art and graffiti and began to pursue what he alludes to as his third artistic way of expression – painting. In. 2013 Robierb move to NYC and debut his first show in the big apple at Gaglialatella Galleries named Bullets and Butterflies. It was from this location that he has created a rough of his most important works, including, BulletFly Effect, HEart and his new series Power Flowers.

In the beginning of 2015, Robierb was commissioned by the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to bring his BulletFly Effect series into the heart of the city. His art project Metamorph-US transformed a Downtown Fort Lauderdale building with a 300-foot mural of large-scale butterflies.

Currently, he is deeply involved in his visually bold and symbolically potent art collection HEART, and his next art project will evolve around two other profoundly transformative figures – bullets and flowers. Working with the bullet as an iconic shape has also paved the way for his fourth artistic way of expression as Robierb is working with dimensionality and scale as a sculptor.

Raphaëlle Séguin was born in Montréal, Quebec. From an early age, she likes to doodle, pottering and painting. She studied arts at Lionel-Groulx College and graduated in design at “Cégep du Vieux-Montreal”. Passionate by the world of visual arts and graphic design, she is mostly fascinated by people’s faces. For her, it’s the most effective tool to communicate. She finds her inspiration from everything that surrounds her, but especially from the different people she meets in her everyday life. To create her characters, she likes to play with the different shapes, volumes, colors and contrasts to give them an original universe and a unique personality. She loves to bring a funny side to her portraits more that sometimes have more serious features. She tries to give people a breath of fresh air, a moment of craziness, a little lightness and make them smile. Painting is a visceral need for her. This allows her total surrender into a world where boundaries and constraints don’t exist.

Her approach is in constant evolution and she is always looking to bring her work further. You can define her art as naive, vulnerable, insightful, playful, humorous, candid and colorful. She likes the fact that each person makes her own reading and interpretation of the faces they are exposed to.

An urban painter, he is primarily interested in the movement of light in city centers. Thus,he prefers living at night and seeing the black asphalt. His work is greatly inspired by capturing the movement of different colors in daily life. A canvas in motion, his paintings become real adventures in which traffic jams and city life become a creative outlet. Intensive traffic !
Andre Schirmer particularly interested in the color and lighting effects that happen in major cities and the people he has observed in his immediate environment. Designer, graphic designer, illustrator and painter. He managed Led Claw Design, a firm of designers. First landscape painter, he then became an urban painter.

Birth: 1977, Montreal, Canada

Creative work: drawing, painting, transformation of objects and furniture Art style: geometric abstraction, opart Since is young age, Severin as always showed interest in art, playing with colors and forms trough, drawing, painting and sculpture. He discovered kinetic art in his early college years, working at the student radio looking at the 60’s and 70’s album covers. Fascinated by this current of art, he started studying and exploring it with different techniques and mediums. Self taught artist his experience come from studying and meeting talented artists in different places in North America, where he also took different courses and creative workshops, that helped him to develop and refine his own style. His abstract geometric optical works investigate how we perceive color and form. Using color bands and basic geometric shapes in a precise and repetitive manner, he creates fascinating optical effects. Illusions where the colors are changing, radiating in their relation one to another(interference). Where a seemingly straight line become sinuous, depending on the point of view, lighter and darker shapes are creating a sense of depth, a third dimension on a two dimensional surface (distortion). With is broad chromatic spectrum and geometric patterns he challenges the observant perception in a different and captivating visual language. Severin’s works are exposed in art galleries all over Canada, Montreal, Ottawa toronto and Whistler.

My work is built with a rigor and a determination that requires a careful involvement of the viewer. The idea of ​​chance is transmuted by that of a particular calculus. All my works will thus appear as a personal organization and structuring of the world.

The plastic construction of my paintings is very rigorous. It takes shape in successive stages, in superimposed layers, by repetition of plans, colors, by the use of impasto, brushing and wiping. The overlapping of planes or shapes ends up weaving together a structure giving at the same time the impression of a rigid mass or a systematic construction that one could almost disassemble and reassemble visually at our discretion. And yet there is very little chance in my way of putting in images these colors, this "painting".

A particularity of my work is certainly the repetition that we find both in each of the works as well as in all of my work. My evolution is characterized by the obsession of continuity: each work calling the next in a series stemming from the same big picture, spawner of all the others. Could it be the obsession to paint at all?

Basically my approach is part of the development of a new pictorial architecture which, while being formal expresses itself with rigor and sensuality.

Isabelle Tremblay was born on November 4th, 1970 in Chicoutimi, Quebec. On top of being a very gifted student, she also demonstrated artistic and musical abilities very early on in her life. From ages 6 to 13, she took classes in classical ballet, jazz ballet, figure skating and music through which she explored her talents.

At 17, she enrolled in the Social Studies program at the Cégep de Chicoutimi. It should be mentioned that she was always very interested in psychology. It is also important to mention that she tried for many years to force herself into a more « serious » line of work despite her artistic aptitudes. However, the following year, she left the social studies program to pursue a DEC in Visual Arts at the Cégep de Chicoutimi. She finished in 1990. This was among the most telling experiences for the artist. When she left the Saguenay for Sherbrooke to pursue her studies, that being the reason for her relocation, she completed one year in Education at the University. You may as well have asked a fish to walk! The next year, feeling slightly lost, she completed a certificate in Arts, also at the University of Sherbrooke. This was far from her best year of studies! But this path did not seem like one. She then compromised and got a degree in Graphic Design at the University of Laval in Quebec. She finished her studies in December 1995. She made attempts to make a career out of graphic design, but it soon became evident that although it seemed like the perfect compromise, her instincts would bring her elsewhere.

She went to Hull in 1997 with a partner. She spent the next two years painting. In 1999, she left Hull for Montreal in order to work for the video-game company Ubi-Soft where she worked until 2001. She was taken on because of her artistic abilities as a graphic designer in textures and pattern structure. After she left Ubi-Soft for health reasons, she reentered a production phase due in part 10 the support she received from her new partner and a few fateful encounters. Because of this, her dream was able to grow, even when at times she never dared dream it was possible.

She soon showed her work at many occasions in Montreal over the next 3 years and in 2004, after a very successful show at Galerie Dentaire in Montreal, she became a permanent artist at Galerie Saint-Dizier in Montreal’s Old Port. During this time, Quebec-Amérique bought the reproduction rights for two of her pieces to use them as cover art for the novels Les larmes d’Adam by Robert Maltais and Polaroids by Sophie Létourneau. After she left Galerie St-Dizier 2006, she exhibited her work in a new art gallery located in the Mile End until 2007. But the lack of profits and the disillusionment she felt towards the art market caused her to make the decision to take a break from production. She attempted to redirect herself and in 2007, underwent a training course in furniture finishing. This experience lasted 6 months. A new passion was born and she toyed with the idea of opening up her own antique replica store. However, at the time, the project was unable to see the light of day. She found herself faced with her art once again.

Attempting to live from art alone had been difficult for her, as it often is for many artists. Her love for painting on one end of the spectrum and her dislike for the costs of being an artist in our society, can be a source of suffering, but still she persisted. She does so because in any event, no matter what she does, life always seems to bring her back to the same place: in front of her easel, her spirit overflowing with images to create. Today, she is a permanent artist at Galerie Lac Brome in Knowlton and has been there since June 2009. She fully intends to live out the love and the innate and unavoidable need she has for expression and beauty.

“I would almost define myself as a seeker. The discovery and knowledge of the intangible is fascinating to me. I have almost no recollection of a time in my life where I wasn’t on a quest for a deeper truth. At the same time, something within me pushes me to share this progressive discovery. For me, art is the medium of choice to relate to others. It is also the connecting link between ether and the world, of which I am proud to be a conductor. It is certainly the reason for which I lend myself to painting and why the need has been so persistent throughout time. Doing so brings me back to my center, where questions turn into answers. It is intimacy, the link between a younger and an older me that is maintained through this relationship. Unlimited possibilities are also present and time holds no influence. In this space, we find a marvelous ocean where all the potential in the world exists and is waiting to show itself. If we lend ourselves to art as either the artist or the observer, art detests us for a moment, barriers of the spirit of separation, cold and calculating to bring us to a space where we all join each other. In my case, it is a path that brings us toward the divine within ourselves and this path, albeit arduous is in reality a source of joy, grace and beauty that is certainly for sharing.

Art practices for me are on par with spiritual practices. In other words, it represents the balance between harshness and abandon, effort and confidence, humanity and confidence. At the end of the day, one must accept and serve the intangible and let everything else float on by. In my opinion, the artist’s job is to purify oneself with time so that he can better render the rays of light he receives. For my part I attempt, through my art, to express myself through symbols, with elements that we cannot see: hope, evolution, freedom, divinity the greatness and grace that lives within us and that we sometimes forget, but that is our true nature, in my opinion.

In my work you can find symbols such as the sprout: which represents the unborn, the potential. The tree: which represents the visible side of things, which in my opinion is often just one single part of what it really is as a whole, the ego. The bird: which symbolizes teachings, and life’s so called coincidences. The egg: which is a gift, life, a secret, a promise hidden within itself, an imminent discovery. The butterfly: the universal symbol of transformation and rebirth. The kimono: which for me symbolizes the spirit and its richness and unity. Water: symbol of emotions and subtle worlds.

I am happy to have the opportunity to show the fruits of my labor on a daily basis. I wish for it to be as beneficial for you as it once was for me, when I was plucking the gardens of Ether.”

Artist from Gothenburg, Sweden. Conveying expressions of emotion and connection; of life and energy.

From Gothenburg, Sweden. Occasionally in the South of France. Represented in Sweden by Galleri Eklund, Stockholm, Galleri Lohme, Malmö, and Ascot Studios in Great Britain. My paintings are silent bursts of emotions, which in the end become portrayals (or portals, if you will) of energy. As such I wish that they can be felt as much as seen; that the energy gets new life and takes on a new form in each viewer. Even if the feeling they give rise to can’t be explained, or even if it’s an unconscious one, it’s nevertheless an important and true feeling. A feeling, I think, that bears witness to the interconnectedness between us, and that there is no distance too far for energy to travel. Which is also why I want to keep it light.

On seeing the sand casting technique for the first time, during her studies in the USA, Amanda Brisbane was instantly drawn to the textural finishes that the process generates – the subtle interplay between the fire-polished smoothness of the inner surface and the contrasting, coarser texture of the cast underbelly. It is a procedure that she has refined over the years; producing one-off glass sculptures that take on an organic, three-dimensional form all of their own.

Currently producing some of the UK’s most visually exciting, contemporary glass sculptures, Amanda’s greatest strength is her ability to embrace each new challenge with a vigour and enthusiasm that is caught in the spirit of her extraordinary glass pieces. 

For over 25 years, Maarten Vrolijk, (1966, Oss, The Netherlands) has been one of the internationally successful artist who make do without an extroverted distancing effect in their creative work. The Amsterdam-based artist and designer considers it important to elaborate on the simple, unequivocal nature of a product. His art language is so unusual because it consciously plays with shapes, colours and materials in an uncontrived way.; they should also make people’s everyday lives that bit more beautiful through the many little details that evoke the unexpected.

Many of his works has been collected and exhibited in several renowned international museums including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Groninger Museum.

A self-taught artist from Quebec, Yann Normand (1974) began his work with drawing and painting. His various experiences, his technical elaboration and his artistic research led him to meet steel and sculpture, which he has been practicing for over a dozen years.

 The techniques used give life to works where the energy of the gesture is divined by the movement given to steel.Inspired by the balance between strengths, silence, spiritual elements, then industrial, the work of the artist wants integrity, authenticity and evolution. The sculptures thus testify to the artist's love for what he does and that, before they existed, each one first made its way into the heart of the man.

Niso Maman was born in 1957. He is an 11th generation Israeli from one of the oldest families living in Israel. He opened his first art studio under the direction of the Haifa University Art Department while still in high school. During this period, he began to establish his reputation in the Tel Aviv area where he sold and displayed work to the art public.

In 1982, Niso opened his studio in West Palm Beach, Florida as well as directing and receiving national attention for operating one of the few bronze art foundries in the Easter United States. In 1991, he began concentrating his efforts on new works of marble, onyx, bronze and steel. It was also during this period that Niso gained a reputation as a teacher of stone-carving, inspiring his students with his creativity and sharp eye for form and lines.

Niso spends his time between his studios in Israel and Palm Beach, Florida, exploring the challenges of self-expression in many contrasting media.

Today his sculptures stand out and demand notice for their simplicity, elegance, and consummate professionalism.

Whatever I write about my artwork is going to be wrong a second down the road. As far as I can see the work changes and is constantly changing. I remain, possibly, constant to a desire to work with my hands and visual imagery. I have always loved the artist materials such as paper, charcoal, paint and clay. It is quite easy to get lost and create work that does not speak to others or even to oneself. Being truly stubborn I have been able to fail and to then start over again , always on the look out for that one piece that speaks simply and clearly (and I don’t know why it does but it does). I am 60 now and this is what I have done since I was….5 years old and maybe younger. It seems I have less tolerance now for going down long roads of what I consider dishonest work. It still happens but I can feel it a mile away and am learning to make the travel down those roads, shorter.

For approximately 30 years, I painted. I loved oils. Oil on wood, oil on linen canvas, oil on paper (many landscapes with animals, people and roads) . Because of allergies I switched to watercolors which I also grew to love. I tried to love acrylics but it was a struggle. During that love/ hate relationship with acrylics I rediscovered paper maché. When I look back at those firstpaper horse sculptures I wonder what in the world I was finding so fascinating. I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning to see how the previous day’s work had dried and then to begin again, a day of layering paper. This went on for a good three years, 10 hours a day, seven day a week. The horses evolved. I did make a conscious decision to work only with the horse (and human) form. There were a dozen or so cows, dogs and turtles but I would quickly grow tired of them. My fascination for the horse seems endless. Why? Maybe I don’t want to know why though maybe faithfulness to the horse, to their muscle, their skin, their bone, their movement, their stillness, their grace, their humour, all parts of the same form, gave me a freedom to allow my hands and mind to dance.

I am a gardener, I am learning to be a potter and I love to walk.