Focus - Élise Caron: Welcoming Élise Caron

15 August - 5 September 2025
  • Élise Caron

    Élise Caron is a prolific Quebec artist who, through her distinctive artistic approach, is dedicated to innovative pictorial research. Her work is characterized by compositions imbued with both intuitive intent and profound reflection. Her creative process is expressed through free, flexible, patient, and meticulous gestures. 
    At a very young age, her interest in the arts determined the direction she would take in her studies. In 1996, her artistic approach took a new turn when she became interested in Chinese painting and calligraphy. She studied Chinese and Japanese art history in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Montreal. She perfected her brushwork by working in a private studio with a Chinese calligraphy master.

  • Oeuvres

  • Le pinceau chinois

    Comme l'archet sur les cordes, il glisse sur le
    papier au rythme des inspirations et du savoir-
    faire de l'artiste. Ses élans, ses cadences, d'une
    pureté étonnante, jouent avec l'encre, les couleurs
    et les textures.
     
    Le trait de calligraphie est net et agile, précis
    comme un pas de danse. Soucieux d'une tradition
    millénaire, il en respecte les détails et le rythme.
    Le geste est musical, l'œuvre est mélodieuse.
    On doit pour l'entendre l'écouter avec les yeux.
     
    Comme dans les murmures d'une forêt ou le
    carillon majestueux des cloches d'une église, les
    moments de silence amplifient la mélodie.
    Tel le son dépouillé du gong sacré, le trait naît,
    s'intensifie, s'étire jusqu'à en perdre haleine.
    La note vit et garde toute sa beauté même quand
    elle devient muette.
     
    Le pinceau glisse, le papier boit, s'enivre par
    moments, se délectant de ces caresses suaves.
    La transparence de l'eau s'imprime. Les parfums
    se dégagent. Les couleurs prennent vie.
    L'œuvre devient verbe et se confie.
     
    À qui sait comprendre la musique qui coule du
    pinceau chinois, elle laisse dans le cœur un
    monde de paix, d'harmonie et de sérénité.
  • In the summer of 2003, during a master class given by Françoise Sullivan*, the latter strongly encouraged her and confirmed the relevance of her pictorial approach. This was a milestone in the evolution of Élise Caron's artistic research in abstraction.

    She exhibited at the Marius-Barbeau Museum in Beauce throughout the summer of 2011. In 2013, the Mont-Saint-Hilaire Museum of Fine Arts organized the prestigious exhibition on Paul-Émile Borduas, Les années New-Yorkaises et L’Héritage de Paul-Émile Borduas (The New York Years and The Legacy of Paul-Émile Borduas), to which she was invited to participate as an heir to the movement. At the same time, the solo exhibition Caron Pureté et dépouillement (Caron Purity and Simplicity) was organized in Paul-Émile Borduas' studio at the Maison de Paul-Émile Borduas at the Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire. Élise Caron was a finalist in 2015 for the CALQ Award – Creator of the Year in the Laurentians (all disciplines combined), an award that recognizes an artist for their entire career and the excellence of their work.
    In 2018, Caron participated in international fairs such as the Affordable Art Fair in Singapore, Sofa Expo in Chicago, and ART in San Diego. Her works are part of private and public collections, including those of the Quebec government and the Canadian government, particularly the Department of Foreign Affairs (Canadian embassies).


    *Françoise Sullivan is one of the fifteen co-signatories of Refus global, published in Montreal on August 9, 1948. Paul-Émile Borduas, the author of this manifesto, challenges traditional values and rejects the immobility of Quebec society at the time. It was a movement for the democratization of art and the flourishing of individual freedom.

  • « Élise Caron's entire body of work: each piece is unique and authentic and stands on its own. But at...

    « Élise Caron's entire body of work: each piece is unique and authentic and stands on its own. But at the same time... each piece (in combination with others) can become part of one or more ensembles and thus create... as if by magic... a new work. That's rarer! ».

     

        -- Renée Gilbert, curator of the exhibition Pureté et Dépouillement (Purity and Simplicity) by Élise Caron, at the Marius-Barbeau Museum.