Invited to Stay Painting

Marous is an artist living in Montreal Canada and a Royal College of Arts (RCA) alumna. She had been painting as an autodidact alongside another career since her early twenties. She committed herself to painting as a professional in 2019. She attended the Visual Arts Center and l’Atelier Circulaire in Montreal and recently completed the contemporary arts short course program at the RCA in 2024. Her work can be found in collections across the globe. Marous' works navigate between the figurative and the abstract with an appeal for evasion and art de vivre. Her artworks often remind of Henri Matisse's in their colourful, patterned and joyful qualities. Her themes often refer to exoticism, travel and world culture. Versatility follows her into her artistic personality as she constantly explores subjects and new ways to paint. Her works are both naïve in their touch and informed in their conception as they display a knowledge of modern art that goes beyond the image and into the works’ materiality. The still life is a recurring motif that allows her to enter into play with the different elements of painting and investigate what it is that captivates her the most at a moment in time. Marous speaks about painting in this way: "Art is freedom. It is a never-ending conversation. If you summon the courage, painting offers the possibility to discover where your intuitions lead you, free from constraints other than those brought about by your medium and surface. It is a dance of the encounter with paint- a dance where you get drawn in so deep, and you hope to catch the hand of the viewer."