About
Painter, born in Montreal in 1978
Biography
France Sarkis was born in Montreal in 1978. From an early age art was her one real subject at school, and she grew up admiring Cubism, Expressionism and Pop Art. She holds a college diploma in arts from Collège Montmorency, a bachelor's degree in art history from the Université du Québec à Montréal and an advanced diploma in event design from the École de design.
Her first solo exhibition, Vertige, opened in 1998. Since then she has shown alone and in groups in Montreal, Laval and at the Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire. In 2009 the solo exhibition Abstracted introduced her watercolours on canvas.
She works instinctively, exploring how colours meet and building up layered, sometimes unruly textures. Her abstractions never quite let go of figuration, which leaves the viewer room to speculate and find a story of their own.
Statement
I like the idea that there is no truth in art.
When I was searching for my own style, I knew right away that what drew me most was colour and texture. I learned the basics of drawing but never put them into practice; representing reality never appealed to me. What I love is mixing colours and applying them spontaneously on the canvas without really knowing what I'll end up with. For me, painting is about instinct and experimenting.
I rarely use conventional tools. I paint with a fork, a nail, a sponge or my bare hands, and often straight from the tube of acrylic, which makes incredible texture and outlines. Acrylic dries fast, so I can start over when I'm not happy, and ironically, the more I start over, the better the texture. Once the layers are dry I rub oil pastel over the surface, or drop black ink and watch it slide. Sometimes I add cut-outs from magazines; the words give clues to a reading.
When a work is finished, I look at every detail of the surface. All of it suggests traces of figures and patterns I had not intended… or did I? What I set out to make abstract comes closer and closer to figuration. I now understand what Picasso meant when he said abstract art doesn't exist. I like the idea that there is no truth in art. When people see my work, I want them to find their own story, and there will always be something new to see.
— France Sarkis
