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ARTIST PROFILE

Lucie Gonella artist painter from Quebec Canada

I was born in Quebec City in 1957, in the spectacular Charlevoix region. As a very young child, I showed a definite aptitude for art in general. With encouragement from my mother, a multidisciplinary artist herself, I was introduced to wide range of art forms that took their place in my work over the years.

 

Innately curious, creative and driven

I began my studies in graphic communication with determination at Laval University in Quebec City, and graduated in 1980. That same year I began to practice my profession at Radio Canada Matane and a few years later I opened a small communications company. I worked in my field over a decade before leaving my homeland and moving to Chile in the early 1990s. On arriving in my adopted country, I gradually incorporated painting into my graphic artwork, until it eventually became my full-time career.

 

«Art nouveau»

My artistic efforts soon led to several exhibitions and honors in various competitions. My work garnered profuse praise from the art critics, who described me as an artist whose work revealed a sophisticated technique and aesthetic. At the time, I was considered a highly expressive, energetic and lyrical artist. I was noted for my love of the "Art nouveau" movement.

 

Chilean art critic Victor Carvacho

Member of the International Association of Art Critics, went even further in his description, stating the following:

“This painter has a remarkable ability to create figurative art. There is no doubt that she is part of the new figuration movement. This is not a throwback to archaic painting, but rather a continuation expressed as natural beauty in its entirety combined with artistic beauty. Expressive movements, such as those in Cubism, Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction and Surrealism, are unique to this contemporary artist and developed by her.

“New Figuration, art created by Lucie Gonella, integrates the expressive with the formal and is dominated by idealized beauty, a desire for dynamic expression and figuration-abstraction duality. Technical and aesthetic maturity is the mark of an artist who is able to use any technique with different artistic mediums. Her works profile a pictorial personality that is able to create soundly, energetically, freely and exemplarily in order to extract poetry from an image.”

New challenge

My Chilean journey ended in 1995 when I moved back to Quebec. These five years of hard work as a professional artist painter had given me the fuel and the experience I needed to sustain my momentum and begin a new career at home. My new creations were presented in Quebec City, in Toronto and in United States.

 

 The acrylic and spatula

I continue to experiment with the various possibilities inherent in the interplay of medium and tool, acrylic and spatula, mixed medium and collages. I keep pushing the dualistic boundaries between the figurative and the abstract further and further, and the spatula allows me to engage with geometric forms, mix several colours together and use a gestural painting style that is fast and intuitive. At the same time, it also lets me take an organized, analytical approach. Acrylic allows me to achieve effects of unprecedented transparency, with the bonus of a short drying time.

 

The human figure

The human figure plays a prominent role in my choice of themes, which portray my characters in a variety of positions. Often they fade into a highly colourful and abstract background, or alternatively, leap to the foreground of their multi-coloured universe. Although I have used the spatula for over twenty years now, I remain open to working with other media.

 

Digital art

My artistic journey moves forward as my need for self-renewal remains stronger than ever. Always in search of something new, I have now started working in digital art. This new approach is opening me up to a world of possibilities and providing me with tremendous gratification. Ever the enthusiastic and passionate adventurer, I am delighted to continue my journey now over 50 years in the making.



 

Lucie Gonella multidisciplinary artist