Bark Bay, 18" x 24"

Acrylic and Heavy Gel on Canvas. 18 x 24 x 1.5 inches.

"These pieces are from a collection created from travel nostalgia. I believe artists do not see the world and appreciate it the same way as everybody else. We see tiny details, notice light, colours, textures, contrasts. We feel emotions deeply. My work reflects how I engage my own perception of the world, first through travel photography, then through thorough abstract deconstruction. It is my way to interpret the beauty around us, the emotions I feel and the best way I can communicate it to the world. This work is meant to be felt, not necessarily understood.

Working primarily with acrylic and heavy gel applied with a palette knife, I build my paintings through squarish marks and build texture. The surface becomes tactile, and alive. Each mark is recorded without being erased, leaving traces of previous knife passage, and mixing paint in unpredictable ways. The thickness of the paint is my way to reach out to the world, and to pull them in. My process is immediate. It is guided more by instinct than by control.

Color plays a central role in my practice. I use bold, saturated palettes to evoke emotional states rather than to describe a specific place. Each painting begins without a fixed plan, evolving organically as colors interact and respond to one another. Through this process, compositions emerge that feel both familiar and undefined. Spaces that
suggest landscapes appear without representing them directly. They exist somewhere between memory and imagination, inviting viewers to enter and interpret them through their own experiences.

At its core, my work is about translation. I transform internal states and memory into visual form. The titles of my pieces act as subtle anchors, offering a point of entry without dictating meaning. I want each painting to remain open, allowing for multiple readings and deep personal connections."

Maryse Lemieux is a self-taught artist based in Gatineau, Quebec. Initially drawn to visual arts through photography, she now works primarily as an abstract painter exploring colour and texture. Working with acrylics and heavy mediums, she builds richly layered surfaces
using a palette knife. Her work has been exhibited in group shows in the Toronto area and the United States, where she received the Emerging Artist of the Year Award in 2023. She has participated multiple times in the Toronto Riverdale Artwalk and Ottawa Art in the Park. Lemieux’s work is held in private collections across Canada, the United States,
France, and Taiwan, and was featured in In Her Studio magazine in 2023.