De retour Painting

Diane Brouillette was born in Valleyfield in 1960. She has acquired a solid arts education, holding a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts (1985), and later studying printmaking in Grenoble (France). She was awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts (1989), in order to perfect her technique at the Académie des Beaux-arts de Florence (Italy). Diane’s works are exhibited in several private and public collections. Diane Brouillette has been painting and professionally exhibiting her work for almost 30 years. She is renowned beyond our borders, for her still life paintings rendered with a realism that both enlivens and makes her subjects resonate. Giving the power of her imagination free reign in this exhibition, the artist infuses her iconography with new life. Her characters are solitary and frozen on the canvas, emerging from a world firmly anchored in dreams, the unconscious and the intimate. Only the hands and faces are showcased. Just like her still lifes, these new paintings are executed with a refined attention to detail, and a rich treatment of lighting and subject matter. Diane Brouillette unveils her approach, yet her characters hold onto their secrets—behind a mask—their hands and eyelids downcast. Could this be the paradox that so captivates the viewer in search of an answer?