Agathe Girard
WSAG is pleased to present the abstract paintings of Canadian artist Agathe Girard. Agathe draws inspiration from her memories of growing up along the western shores of Lac Saint-Jean in Saint-Félicien, Quebec. Using a veil of abstraction and a wide array of luxurious, yet subtle colours, her work can suggest faces and human form, landscapes, houses and villages much like fleeting visions inhabiting free space.
The great natural expanses of my childhood
rural hometown of Saint-Félicien,
Québec, have never ceased to exert their influence on
my artistic work.
My first encounters with painting date back to the early eighties. A subsequent degree in fine arts led me to explore sculpture, to which I devoted myself in the nineties, working mainly with granite and limestone. My approach to this medium has always been to emphasize the natural texture and feeling of the material, while hinting at human forms in the process. In 2000, I came back to acrylic painting, starting with portraits and still life, and evolved towards the more abstract subjects that you see today.
I try to paint with spontaneity and to entertain an ongoing interactive relation with my work; nothing is predetermined, the painting is conceived as it is created. Texture and relief are worked into the canvas using brushes and spatulas in an attempt to give a sculptural quality to the end result. I often work on multiple productions during a same period, leading to series exploring similar themes.
Many of my paintings exhibit a rectangular geometry with a prevalence of horizontal and vertical features. These features are often balanced in a way that allows the canvas to be reoriented without compromising its coherence. Using a veil of abstraction and a wide array of colours, my work can suggest faces and human forms, houses and villages much like fleeting visions inhabiting free space. Agathe Girard K. 2013
My first encounters with painting date back to the early eighties. A subsequent degree in fine arts led me to explore sculpture, to which I devoted myself in the nineties, working mainly with granite and limestone. My approach to this medium has always been to emphasize the natural texture and feeling of the material, while hinting at human forms in the process. In 2000, I came back to acrylic painting, starting with portraits and still life, and evolved towards the more abstract subjects that you see today.
I try to paint with spontaneity and to entertain an ongoing interactive relation with my work; nothing is predetermined, the painting is conceived as it is created. Texture and relief are worked into the canvas using brushes and spatulas in an attempt to give a sculptural quality to the end result. I often work on multiple productions during a same period, leading to series exploring similar themes.
Many of my paintings exhibit a rectangular geometry with a prevalence of horizontal and vertical features. These features are often balanced in a way that allows the canvas to be reoriented without compromising its coherence. Using a veil of abstraction and a wide array of colours, my work can suggest faces and human forms, houses and villages much like fleeting visions inhabiting free space. Agathe Girard K. 2013
