A painter of nature, and above all of trees, Marie Diane Bessette has chosen to live and create in the Laurentians.
She has always had a facility for expressing herself through drawing.
She studied fine arts at CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal where she experimented with various mediums. Subsequently, she continued her artistic training at the Visual Arts Center and at Concordia University, in drawing, oil painting, and later, emotional painting with Rita Briansky.
In 1999, she adopted watercolour as her medium. A nature lover, she studied landscaping and urban forestry. It explains the technical accuracy of the plants in her paintings. She distinguished herself in the municipal field by creating landscapes that are symphonies of form and colour.
Her passion for sailing and arboriculture translates into highly detailed watercolours. Her sense of colour and its effects facilitates the expression of wide open spaces and a diversity of elements in her works, elements she has encountered both in Québec and in her travels around the world. Clouds are often the unifying element that imbues the work with an overall mood that is expressive of the force of nature.
Her evolution toward the semi-figurative occurred when she joined the Sfumato studio in 2012. A prolific artist, her work enables her to explore other recesses of her creativity. She has produced as many small paintings as she has medium and large ones. Many of her works are diptychs and triptychs.
Artistic Approach
The act of creating in two dimensions with a pencil, a brush or a palette knife is, for me, an intuitive journey out of time and has been since I was a child. This was, of necessity, in order to share and understand my profound affinity with everything around me, such as the rhythm of the water, the root systems of trees, the cycle of the seasons, or the dance of the birds, in order to give them form in my art. To help me in my artistic development, throughout my life, I have studied: at Cégep du Vieux–Montréal, at the Visual Arts Center, and at Concordia University. I have also participated in numerous professional workshops in order to expand my horizons, acquire new techniques and share my work with other artists.
In order to go beyond figurative painting, before I paint, it is important for me to empty my mind through meditation, which helps me achieve the necessary quietude, and to awaken inspiration. This is a constant quest for me, and I have chosen watercolour, on canvas or wood, to express a subtle energetic presence through the harmony of textures and colours. In a spontaneous way, I try to suggest, rather than show, the thousand and one peaceful manifestations of my perception of the spirit of things.
As well, there are numerous reasons that make me want to teach: first, to help students see the world around us; then, to awaken in them the importance of cultivating their creative potential, by quieting their rational mind through the discipline of drawing. Drawing is a very important means of expression which, through different exercises, can help us understand the world and share that understanding. Our entire being participates in this.
My retirement, which began on July 14, 2017, has allowed me to design and build a studio where I can work and teach. The official opening was on September 29, 2017. Creating my art studio was the starting point for expressing my passion for creation, for sharing my artistic knowledge, and through this, connecting with people who are very different. For me, it is important to keep adding to my list of new accomplishments and to continue to sell my work at respectable prices, since this has a positive effect on my creativity.
It feels so good to create!
 

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