LeGall Lydie

Like the gorse, the heather and the mistletoe, my family roots go back to the land of Brittany in France. Rocked by the sea, whipped by the wind, this Breton collection of rural white thatched houses along the coast of Brittany will be a discovery of my origin. Perhaps it will touch people of Quebec and remind them of the shores along the St-Lawrence River. Maybe it will be the nature of eastern Canadian shores or a forgotten past lost in time space.

Born and raised in Quebec, Canada, I spent most of my summers in France, near a little village called Pont-Aven, where the famous painter Gauguin had established his art school.

I played hooky at the ‘’Beaux-Arts School’’ and consider myself self-taught. Instead, I explored new materials and methods of application, developing my own style. The colors I use are mostly earth tones; brown sienna, burnt umber and black. I use bright gold and blue for punch, which brings out the pure emotion of energy felt when facing the sea on the coast of Brittany.

My subjects are the little white houses from Brittany by the open sea in that amazing landscape from the coast. I work on small to medium size canvas and I create texture in the background by using plaster which forces me to work with the surface and brings roughness to my subjects. It is a boundary I impose on myself to make each painting unique. It is at this particular step of my painting that I can really create the climate of the Breton coast. The breaking waves of the sea, the drizzle of a morning, the storms and fog, all of Brittany in an uncontrolled nature.

The last step of my painting is an application of a shiny and glossy varnish which makes all the colors sparkle and gives the illusion of wetness, again a reminder of the ocean.