Élène Gamache

Born in Quebec City in 1951, Élène Gamache lives and works in Montreal. Elene received her Diplome de l'Ecole des Arts Visuels in 1971 and Teacher's Degree in 1972 from Universite Laval in Quebec City. She also attended the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1982 and 1986.

In Élène Gamache's works, the viewer is transported to a world where sanctity and ritual, reality and imagination, exist side by side with simplicity. Élène paints what interests her, and her aim is to obtain a bright, velvety texture in her works by superimposing colour on top of colour on the canvas. The base is worked in acrylics, to which she adds pastels, scratching and manipulating them to give depth to the painting. Élène's pieces are always full of life because she prefers her still lifes to be alive and vibrant.

"I return again, and always, to that magic word for me: Italy. It was Italy that inspired my flower bouquets and sparked my fascination with the elegant renaissance facades of the palazzos. It is the splendour of that countryside that I am recreating in my paintings today."

"Without actually abandoning my still-life format, I've incorporated the landscape into the background, keeping the architectural detail and the flowers that I love in the foreground. The soft tones bring to mind the warm caress of the sun on the surrounding vista, punctured by green, almost black exclamation marks of the cypress trees sprinkled throughout the valleys. Surrounded by so much beauty, it is hard to remain unmoved. The magic of Italy continues to dazzle.”-Élène Gamache