I’m a French Canadian Artist who’s been living in Europe for 5 years now. My art journey is unconventional but so is my life and looking back, I realize art was meant to arrive in my life no matter what. As a kid, I was not particularly interested in Arts, unless you consider “colouring” an art! I was passionate about sports and literature but when arrived the time to choose a career, I chose Nursing. Even if sometimes I feel I should have taken a different path, I’m happy now with the way it has evolved. 

In 2009, I attended an Art Therapy session as a Military Mental Health Nurse, and I had an epiphany! Later on, I ended up completing an Art Therapy Certificate and a Graduate Diploma. Throughout this education, I had to complete Art classes and although they were quite challenging, they led me to be more interested in art than in therapy. Before studying art, I couldn’t understand abstract art and, to be honest, I didn’t like it at all but the more I was exposed to it, the more I started to appreciate it. 

I eventually dropped the Nursing field due to moving outside Canada and started focusing on photography and painting. I’ve always developed both crafts at the same time but initially gave more attention to my photography, mostly because I felt more confident about my skills in that field. My initial interests in photography were related to Travel and Street photography, and with time, expanded to Macro and Abstract photography. David DuChemin, a Canadian photographer, has been an inspiration to me throughout my photographic journey.

In 2016, I moved to Naples, Italy, where I met Danielle Rousseau – an artist who became a friend and a mentor. Our meetings were so inspiring that we decided to organize an exhibition together where I exposed my art works for the first time. 

Since then, my art practice has greatly evolved and has been influenced by nature and by the countries I live in. Naples was extremely inspiring photographically and abstract seascapes and shades of blue were often present in my artworks as a result of living on the sea. When I moved to Germany, where I am surrounded by fields of vegetation, I noticed a shift in my painting practice in which abstract landscapes and shades of green started to emerge. 

My creative process is intuitive and I rarely know what I want to do when I enter my studio. My approach is sort of meditative: I listen to my inner self, I look at my works, at the mediums, at the supports, and at the colours. Some days I feel “blue”, some other days I feel “green”. Acrylic paint, water colour, and oil pastels are the mediums I prefer to work with and they influence the art I create. I love layers, textures, mark makings, adding, and subtracting. My painting sessions are generally quite physical and exhausting and when I’m in the flow, I completely lose track of time. 

In life, I hate chaos, the unknown, and accidents, however, I welcome them with open arms while in my studio. As a matter of fact, chaos is at the beginning of most of my paintings, the unknown is present throughout the process, and the final painting is often a result of letting go, going with the flow and trials and errors. With time and experience, I have learned to accept that not all art work is great and that the “ugly paintings” are part of the process. When I am overwhelmed with doubts, I take a step back and think about a “mantra” I learned in Art Therapy which is “Trust the process”.

Painting is a way to express myself and as I have an intuitive approach, I cannot commit to a unique style. It took me a long time to show my artworks because I was trying to find “my style” but when I realized that I cannot control what needs to be expressed and that it is more exciting to me to explore different avenues, I felt liberated. After all, isn’t art supposed to be a journey where we can be whatever we want to be? 

I am pursuing my creative journey and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me. I want to keep developing my photography and painting practices but I also want to integrate other creative fields such as home decoration, ceramic, and horticulture. I may not have a unique style but I am creating a unique art journey and that is really exciting!

I’m grateful for your support in my art adventures!

Christine

            “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”  – Maya Angelou