Sylvie Drainville

Sylvie Drainville was born in Sainte-Thérèse in 1964. After studying visual arts at Lionel Groulx College in Sainte-Thérèse, she moved to Montreal in 1982 and completed studies in graphic arts, then visual arts at the University of Sherbrooke. Her area of expertise was photomechanics (darkroom), then the creation of digital advertising images. She created digital images for advertising agencies in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and New York.

At the same time, she paints tirelessly and takes advantage of advertising campaign launch events to showcase her creations. In 2006, she set up her studio in the Eastern Townships and has been painting full-time ever since.

``Color is one of my strengths and it is the starting point, the inspiration for each painting. Even though there is a panoply of ready-to-use color tubes, I have the need to create complex mixtures and play with the limits (saturation, hue, luminosity). I am constantly looking for colors with the right texture, the right finish to represent the climatic effects on nature. Visual and physical contact with nature is essential to my painting. Many images rush into my head when I am in front of the blank canvas. I close my eyes and the gestures I make let nature appear. The viewer will find his own story there if he lets himself be touched.

In the calm, in the forest, quick gestures that seem uncontrolled, very physical. Sculpting the material, taking the time it takes, intensely, intuitively. I engrave in the paint to leave sculptures of time on nature. There is rarely a determined plan but there is the need to be entirely present to produce a strong, touching, very peaceful and aesthetically beautiful painting. I prefer to work on a large format and ideally, when I start it, I finish the painting continuously.``