Brigitte is a Toronto-based artist that has recently graduated from OCAD University for Illustration and had previously obtained a BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto. She enjoys incorporating her background in psychology with her artistic work to explore themes of humanity, feminism, animal rights and nature. Brigitte works predominantly in acrylic paint but also likes to dabble with other wet and dry mediums and even sculpture. She often likes to push the boundaries of painting by incorporating elements such as found objects or sculpture and working with raw and natural materials such as wood. A lot of her inspiration comes from nature and her experiences. She tries to immerse herself in nature as much as possible and enjoys going out for observational walks. Although her artistic style is close to realism, she likes to explore surreal compositions, allowing her to create captivating and life-like pieces in surreal ways in order to make important statements.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Although I would describe my artistic style as close to realism, I like to combine realistic images and meaningful subject matter in surreal ways which allows me to make important statements. I often enjoy incorporating my psychology background in my artistic work to explore themes of human and animal rights, feminism, and nature. As a female artist, one of my goals is to share my work with others to normalize and draw beauty to femininity and the female body and bring appreciation to our individual differences. I work predominantly in acrylic paint but I also like to dabble with other wet and dry mediums such as watercolour, ink, resin, pencil crayon, charcoal and even sculpture. I also like to push the boundaries of my paintings by incorporating other elements into them, such as found objects or sculpture. I paint predominantly on wood panel as it gives me a strong and hard surface to mount objects onto, as well as giving me a surface that I can cut through to add depth behind the panel and that can also support the sculptural elements that make many of my paintings three dimensional. At times I like to use the beautiful natural patterns of the wood panel as an element in my work, as I really like to integrate nature and raw material when it suits my concepts. Most often, I love using bright bold colours to make my work pop and highlight the subjects of my pieces. For visual inspiration I enjoy immersing myself in nature, going for observational walks and noticing the little things in the world around me.