Johanne Proulx

"I have been practicing painting and printmaking since completing my art studies in 1986 at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Later, after studying art therapy, I immersed myself in the pictorial expression of marginalized individuals, and in that spirit, I worked with this community for 20 years through the organization " Les Impatients " in Montreal. With these individuals, I learned to appreciate the beauty of a free and meaningful gesture the kind found in the Art Brut movement  which speaks directly to emotion. That is my nourishment.

This new series pays homage to gesture, color, and emotional expression elements that I particularly cherish and that play an inseparable role in my work. Nature naturally emerges as a guiding thread throughout this new body of work. In 2023, I introduced the notions of repetition and transparency through the use of stencils. In the winter of 2021, following a move to the Laurentians and almost thanks to the confinement brought about by the pandemic I discovered fe tile ground for inspiration and introspection in the nature surrounding me, where I have since made my nest."