Francine DeBlois

Color is in my blood. Ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated by coloring pencils. They were my greatest gift. Even today, I still remember the smell of those notebooks and pencils.
As a young adult, I took painting lessons. In my thirties, I returned to my passion and met painters such as Marcel Gagnon, Basque and Brother Jerome. Each in his own way brought me a great deal, and they left an indelible mark on my learning and my deep desire to become a painter.
At the time, I was living in Rimouski. A three-year break from work enabled me to take a certificate in Visual Arts at the Université du Québec à Rimouski. But it was also during this period that I left Rimouski for Saint-Hyacinthe. It was a time of transition, a time of searching for a new work experience, and after taking a year's course in sculpture, I discovered my new calling: massage therapy.
At the beginning of the 2000s, I was off to a new start. Creativity workshops, visits to symposia, museums and galleries, everything was a pretext for learning to develop my artistic writing. Workshops with Tania Lebedeff were instrumental in setting me on this artistic path.
It would undoubtedly be the path of abstraction. By discovering gestural art, I'm touching my soul, my deepest values and my uniqueness. First, color guides my inner listening. At last, I'm giving myself permission to dare to break down barriers, to let myself go. Without the slightest embarrassment, I display my emotions, my torments, my revolts, my joys and my sorrows. The viewer can read into it his or her own apprehensions or joys. I reveal myself without censorship or fear of judgment. I take advantage of my freedom of expression and offer the viewer a space open to contemplation.
Acrylic is my preferred medium. And this is where massage therapy comes in. It's a training that touches on volume, textures and tactile sensations. By adding paper, modeling clay or other textures to canvas or wood panel, I reveal moods in the face of my environmental concerns. I play with colors and textures until they are in harmony.
I define myself as a colorist painter who likes to leave traces of the past, the present and perhaps even the future, while at the same time touching on the timeless.
Francine DeBlois


Artistic approach
Color is in my blood. Ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated by coloring pencils. They were my greatest gift. Even today, I still remember the smell of those notebooks and pencils.
As a young adult, I took painting lessons. In my thirties, I returned to my passion and met painters such as Marcel Gagnon, Basque and Brother Jerome. Each in his own way brought me a great deal, and they left an indelible mark on my learning and my deep desire to become a painter.
At the time, I was living in Rimouski. A three-year break from work enabled me to take a certificate in Visual Arts at the Université du Québec à Rimouski. But it was also during this period that I left Rimouski for Saint-Hyacinthe. It was a time of transition, a time of searching for a new work experience, and after taking a year's course in sculpture, I discovered my new calling: massage therapy.
At the beginning of the 2000s, I was off to a new start. Creativity workshops, visits to symposia, museums and galleries, everything was a pretext for learning to develop my artistic writing. Workshops with Tania Lebedeff were instrumental in setting me on this artistic path.
It would undoubtedly be the path of abstraction. By discovering gestural art, I'm touching my soul, my deepest values and my uniqueness. First, color guides my inner listening. At last, I'm giving myself permission to dare to break down barriers, to let myself go. Without the slightest embarrassment, I display my emotions, my torments, my revolts, my joys and my sorrows. The viewer can read into it his or her own apprehensions or joys. I reveal myself without censorship or fear of judgment. I take advantage of my freedom of expression and offer the viewer a space open to contemplation.
Acrylic is my preferred medium. And this is where massage therapy comes in. It's a training that touches on volume, textures and tactile sensations. By adding paper, modeling clay or other textures to canvas or wood panel, I reveal moods in the face of my environmental concerns. I play with colors and textures until they are in harmony.
I define myself as a colorist painter who likes to leave traces of the past, the present and perhaps even the future, while at the same time touching on the timeless.
Francine DeBlois

**Automatically translated from the original text.**