"Octopus #1" Painting

Recipient of a Mention for modern figurative / Festival des Arts de Mascouche 2020 - Canada ★ Mention for figurative art overall quality - Césure 2019 ★ Mention of honour, Fairmont Château Frontenac - Quebec, SACQ 2018 ★ Mention of excellence Césure 2018 for portrait and figure painting ★ Excellence CGI Award for emerging artist 2017. ★ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Maud Besson started showing her paintings in France after graduating from the National School of Applied Arts in 2002 (ENAAI). Moving to Montreal in 2007, then in British Columbia in 2012, She continues to show her creations while pursuing her exploration of art and discover in Canada an exciting artistic universe. Today, settled in Quebec city, Maud stay primarily a figurative painter, still involved in constant aesthetic research. By creating her work, she expresses who she really is. ★ARTIST STATEMENT Primarily a figurative painter, Maud Besson is Involved in constant aesthetic research. Definitively instinctive, by creating her work, she expresses who she really is. Born and raised in France, she quickly learned that her calling was in art. Through her studies, she discovered painting was her true passion and since that moment it becomes a true necessity. Her favorite subject has always been the human being. The majority of her creations are figure drawings and portraits expressed in her own style, but also urban landscapes and wild animals to which she gives a half-humane, half- sacred character. Her first goal is to isolate an emotion, one exact moment, in order to create a testimony of that fraction of an instant. She’s inspired by the past, the future, memory, and the transformation and mutation of the body. Her subjects, male and female or animal are either live or imaginary, attempting to breathe another air than that breathed in our world. Sometimes this is a violent experience, yet it must be faced. Inspired by symbolism and architecture, Maud works on themes of sacred images and iconography. She frequently explores issues affecting our planet, such as environmental problems. Certain themes like ultra-commercialism and the world population trouble appear regularly in her paintings. Passionate about travel, she is interested in Tribes and Cultures around the world. Working mainly with acrylic paint and mixed media, the artist always begins her creative process by collecting images linked to her subject.