If Christine Gagné has accustomed visitors to the Galerie de Miss Rey to paintings and feminine and refined bronze sculptures, it is today through a new medium that her sense of aesthetics and detail woos the watchful eye of visitors.
For only two months, the multidisciplinary artist has devoted himself to digital art, swapping his canvases and brushes for an electronic tablet and a stylus.
An artistic movement
“This is the first time that she has exhibited her works created using digital tools. His evolution is amazing! suggests Clea Reynolds, owner of the gallery adorned with the works in Christine's exhibition, entitled Secret Frontier, to evoke the "imaginary lines in our minds, those limits that sometimes prevent us from taking a step forward and discovering a world that has been calling us for so long", proposes the artist. The series of digital illustrations, printed on acrylic canvas, features female characters inspired by Aboriginal culture, including a young girl with a sweet face, wearing pigtails and surrounded by doves. It is her desire to appease, to heal, if only a little, the wounds of the Aboriginal people, bruised by current events and the history of the country, which inspired Christine Gagné to discover this creation.
“It's not the computer that draws (…) We have to demystify what digital art is. – Clea Reynolds
The possibilities of creation
Christine uses applications on her iPad Pro, namely Procreate and Photoshop, to create several different layers, called "layers", thus separating her colors and lines, which she can choose to isolate and edit individually. She creates her own patterns, bits of brushes and virtual stamps, then disperses them, sometimes in the background, sometimes in patterns on the warped clothing of one of her characters. Neither seen nor known, she can change the color of her layers, play with their intensity by changing their opacity, then go back and erase what she sees fit, as never before possible on paper or on a Web. "The white lines that we see, especially on his canvas Daughters of the Wind, in locks of hair or in flowers in the background, are in fact made with the "eraser" tool, in the absence of be solid lines," says Reynolds.
“Yes, it is to be mistaken. It looks like a canvas entirely made with physical material, so much the final rendering reproduces the detail and the nuance. Admittedly, the digital limit is the absence of relief, but we can create the illusion of a texture by playing with the grain, which Christine does skillfully”, observes the fine art connoisseur. You can also print the digital work on an acrylic panel of any size and the image will remain impeccable. “That's another unique advantage of digital art. The quality of the image never gets lost and you can enlarge it without pixelating it,” adds Clea.
An art to demystify
“It's not the computer that draws. It really is Christine. Otherwise, we would talk about algorithms or artificial intelligence”, specifies the gallery owner, who wishes to educate those who are unaware of the subtleties of this art. “We need to demystify what digital art is. After all, there are at least 15 types. Christine's art is particularly similar to hand-drawn vector drawing, in two and three dimensions. She is the artist, not the algorithm! »
The works from the Secret Frontier series will be exhibited at the Galerie de Miss Rey until the end of August.
Source: Journal de Chambly
By: Chloe-Anne Touma