JOHANNE KOURIE EXHIBITIONS – MY JOURNEY

At 8 years old, the little girl that I was and who had just won a drawing competition, had no idea that she would be exhibiting in Paris a few decades later! Let me tell you about my journey…

Art has always been a part of my life. Whether in theater, sewing, drawing, dancing or singing, I was constantly remaking the world according to my imagination. I was a dreamy child, in the moon, as my teachers liked to say. So you will not be surprised to learn that my very fertile imagination enjoyed recreating the surrounding world in vivid colors populated by fairy tale and cartoon characters.

If I told you that “Fanfreluche *” and “Peter Pan *” were my favorite characters, would that surprise you? I saw the Peter Pan cartoon in theaters 3 times in a row when I was 5 years old. It’s an understatement to say that it marked my imagination! Although the arts are part of me, it was not in art that I studied, but in marketing. I told myself that working in advertising would be an art form.

BACK WITH A FORCE

A few years later, as I was remaking the world according to my creativity and that of my four children, art came back in force in my life! Craftings of all kinds, sewing to dress my pirates, fairies, elves and wizards and finally, painting to introduce my children to art and allow me to replay with my brushes forgotten for too long … I took up painting again there where I had left it several years before, but with all the more passion and emotions to express.

EXHIBITIONS

I did my first exhibitions in community centers and libraries in my area. Family and friends were always there to support and encourage me. Slowly, but surely, over the years, I have expanded my exhibition territory. Montreal, Laurentians, Charlevoix and then New York and finally Paris! Yes, yes, Paris! I worked hard, I created paintings, I persevered!

Over time, I have perfected my techniques and my brushstrokes have become more confident, even more assumed! I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, only a little bit. I am passionate about colors and the world is so much more beautiful in multicolored, what do you think?

“Painting is very easy when you don’t know how to do it. When you know it, it’s very difficult ” Edgar Degas

• Fanfreluche interpreted by Kim Yaroshevskaya is a Quebec youth television series broadcast between 1968 and 1971 on Radio-Canada television.
• Peter Pan a comic book character created by Walt Disney in 1953