C'est magnifique! Quebec native enjoys time with her art (March 21, 2012)

MOORESBURG — Speaking with a distinct Québécois French accent, Canadian Marie Andree Desjardins explained why she loves to create art and why Hawkins County, Mooresburg in particular, is her muse for at least six months each year.

     “I’m a snow bird here,” she said smiling.  “Winter in Quebec is minus 40 degrees at times.  My body aches everywhere when the weather is that temperature.  So, I come down to Mooresburg to stay with a friend in the warmer weather.  I will be going back to Quebec in April.”

     A self-taught artist from Châteauguay, Quebec, Marie uses every medium from charcoal to oil paint, but she said her favorite is ink.  She uses it to complete a very complicated, time-consuming style known as pointillism, or pointillé in French.

     Pointillism is a technique in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image.  Shadows and light are interpreted through precise placement of those dots to produce a complete picture.

     While color is often used in pointillism, Marie said she prefers black ink on white paper, which she also admitted is a reflection of her personality.

     “If you see my drawings, you see my personality,” she said.  “It is black and white, so you know what kind of person I am.”

     But while Marie’s personality is to the point, the process to complete one of her drawings is painstaking.  A small illustration can take her up to 20 hours of careful work, with little room for error.  She said the amount of time spent is often determined by the amount of shadow and light cast onto a subject.

     Taking ink, then using it to create pin-sized dots that eventually produce an image accomplishes the task.  Shadows and other elements are determined by meticulous spacing.  The result is photographic, almost like looking at a black and white photo or negative image.

     “When I begin a new drawing, that is how I have to look at it in my mind,” Marie said, “like it is a negative photograph.”

     Developed by French post-Impressionist painters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in 1886, pointillism is considered the offspring of the Impressionist painting style.

     Characteristics of Impressionism include small, thin, but visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of changes in light that sometimes accentuate time changes, as well as everyday subject matter.

     Pointillism, much like its cousin, was not highly celebrated at first.  Historically, critics in fact coined the name in the 1880s who ridiculed painters that used the technique.  But the term has outlasted its mocking intent to become a label for this now-respected art form.

     Marie said it was the early Pointillists, such as Seurat and Signac, who inspired her to focus on her complex style, but art was already in her blood.  She began to draw seriously at the age of 16 and said she knew it would become a lifelong passion.

     Her dream of becoming a student at Beaux Arts Montreal, a leading fine arts college, was cut short when funding in her family’s post-war home did not allow Marie to attend.

     But, determined to achieve more formal knowledge of her craft, she set out to learn on her own.  Eventually she studied commercial art at Studio Salette and continued to study fine art at her own pace.

     As a child, Marie said drawing and painting would take up her time.  Having only one sibling, a brother who was three years her senior, the young girl needed something that would occupy her day.

     “I was a very lonely kid at home,” she said.  “I've always been drawing, since I can remember.  My mother was sick sometimes and she would have me go draw.  She was pretty good at drawing also, and I have an uncle who was good at it.  I just done it to fill out my time.”

     Marie said when other children would attend after-school activities her leisure time was spent creating new images with a pen or brush and some paper.  Today, she said that still holds true.

     “If I am lonely, or if I see something that makes me happy all I need to do is go and draw,” she said.  “To see people who enjoy looking at what I do is like giving birth to a baby.”

     For Marie, who said she knows the joy that comes from having her own daughter, “The satisfaction is about the same.”

     “It is very hard to sell a drawing once I finish it,” she said.  “You cannot put a value on it.  I would rather give them away, then tell people, ‘When you’re tired of it, bring it back,’ than sell it because each one is a part of me.”

     That part of her life is what she has shared since being introduced to Mooresburg three years ago.  The community has become the subject for many of her pointillist works.

     “I like the old barns, the fields, the mountains.  They are all beautiful and the mountains are similar to Quebec,” she said.  “It relaxes me.  A lot of stress has gone out with these drawings.”

     Marie also said the people in Mooresburg and Hawkins County continue to make her experience a memorable one.

     “They accept me right away, and that’s very touching to the heart,” she said.  “I feel at home here.”

     Samples of Marie’s work are on display at the Local Artist Gallery, located at the corner of Main and Church Streets in Downtown Rogersville.

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