BIOGRAPHY
Mariclair grew up in the countryside on a dairy farm, surrounded by seven siblings, all driven by creativity and ingenuity. Drawn to art, design, and fashion from an early age, she began exploring oil and watercolor painting, gradually discovering her artistic vocation. In 2013, she left the federal public service to fully dedicate herself to her art.
Primarily self-taught, Mariclair enriched her journey and nurtured her innate talent under the guidance of renowned instructors and artists. Her artwork, grounded in abstraction, combines painting with tactile experimentation using various textures, collages, and mediums such as acrylic, mortar, marble dust, black ink, charcoal, oil pastels, and watercolor pencils.
Her art conveys powerful and unique emotions, inspired by the timeless beauty of landscapes while reflecting universal emotions that connect us all, influenced by the works of Mitchell, Cy De Twombly, Ferron, Riopelle, Zao Wou-Ki, among other great names in art.
Mariclair has gained international recognition, participating in events such as Art Battle in Tunisia in 2022, and receiving numerous accolades, including an honorable mention from the Circle Foundation for the Arts and several Platinum Best of Abstract awards in Arizona, as well as the Talent Prize Award in Los Angeles. Her works have been exhibited in renowned galleries like Galerie Bloom in Montreal, Galerie Archambault Lavaltrie, La Galerie NAK in Ottawa, Galerie Roccia in Magog, Ni vu ni Cornu Ste-Anne de Beaupré, and featured in significant exhibitions such as "Suivre sa trace" at Musée Beaulnes de Coaticook. Mariclair's art is also accessible on esteemed online platforms such as Saatchi, Singulart, ArtMajeur, and Artling.
Her creations have found homes with private and distinguished collectors in more than ten countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, and the United States. This global influence highlights the universal appeal of Mariclair's work, which touches and captivates diverse audiences worldwide.
According to Mr. Robert Bernier, art expert and historian, "each of her canvases possesses its own story which is expressed through the unsaid, and an infinity of nuances, all rounded with softness and poetry. Her creations awaken a feeling of voluptuousness in those who approach them, auguring the potential of her work to reach prestigious heights in the future. Without a doubt, Mariclair Plante leaves an indelible mark on the contemporary pictorial landscape."
ARTISTIC APPROACH
Each of Mariclair's works is infused with the richness of her childhood on a dairy farm, where nature provided the backdrop for an overflowing imagination. Her abstract compositions are nourished by this deep connection to the land, exploring the changing colors of the seasons and the tangible texture of the rural environment.
Mariclair also draws inspiration from artists like Mitchell, Twombly, Riopelle, Ferron, and Zao Wou-Ki, whose bold approach to color, gesture, and form resonates in her artistic explorations. She strives to capture the essence of these influences while injecting her own unique voice, expressed through various mediums such as mortar, acrylic, ink, and pastels.
Her work is a continuous quest to discover the symbiosis between human emotions and inner landscapes, translating moments of everyday life into "pictorial synchronicities" where spontaneous gestures confer an unstable yet mesmerizing harmony.
Guided by nature, Mariclair invites each viewer on an introspective exploration, evoking feelings of vitality and freedom. She creates with the ambition that each canvas becomes a mirror of the soul, an invitation to reflect on our place within the natural environment.
By embracing the subtle layers of life, Mariclair offers a universal experience, allowing her work to transcend boundaries and resonate across the world.
Lou-ann Albiol-Ducos (ALMINE RECH) Portfolio Review on 31/03/2025
The effectiveness of Marie-Claire Plante's portfolio lies in its remarkable synthesis of lyrical abstraction, sensitivity to texture, and natural rhythm.
This is beautifully manifested in 'Danse de la nature', a vertical composition with vibrant greens, ethereal bluish hues, and purple accents that unite in a flow both dynamic and harmonious. The layers of paint and pictorial gestures possess an organic emergence quality, as if nature were reinvented through a dreamlike prism.
The artist's ability to guide the viewer's gaze without imposing a forced interpretation powerfully reveals the breadth of imagination and emotional resonance.
In this work, one perceives the artist's authority asserting itself: chaotic and orderly at once, intuitively and poetically.
This painting brilliantly illustrates the remarkable effect of the portfolio, which evokes a calm energy and an evocative tranquility.
Marie-Claire Plante: ''Tramontante''
Text by Robert Bernier
Art historian and expert
Tramontana is the name of a wind blowing in the western Mediterranean. In Catalonia and Languedoc, the tramontana comes from the north-north-west from the mountain ranges. Here, he is the image of the creative wind that swept over the work of artist Marie-Claire Plante one day in 2014, bringing with it a fundamental renewal of his artistic vision.
Marie-Claire Plante has been painting for more than 25 years and for a long time in oils with a figurative and traditional approach. A style with which she will feel more and more cramped over time. So in 2014, she enrolled in a creation workshop directed by Laurent Bonet. Unparalleled pedagogue, the latter favors the exploration of materials, the expression of inner feelings. This experience will turn out to be a response to his dissatisfaction at the time. She had indeed, finally, found her artistic correspondence with her inner and outer worlds. From now on his first inspiration will be his experience and his non-figurative path.
Finally freed from her constraints, Marie-Claire Plante has been painting since that day, listening to her emotional feelings. This commands a state of being in suspension finally free from interference. What some call the quest for emptiness. She comes to this state by meditating and listening only to the drum of her heart. It is from there that the correspondences spring up in "synchronicity" with his gestures which then become both the antennae and the vehicle of his emotional universe.
Moreover, it is the initial gesture which will guide all the others expressing a great whole, indefinite and nevertheless singularly present.
Marie-Claire Plante works in Indian ink on the structure of everything that will follow. This step may or may not disappear under the successive layers of pigment that will follow. She paints according to the impulses of the moment and will use this or that other medium giving shape to textures. These are also a fundamental element in his visual language because they play both an aesthetic and expressive role. They are the pivots or, if you prefer, the doors through which pass his happiness and his need to paint. Especially his emotional communication on the web. The work thus reveals itself without premeditation by a sum of spontaneous impetus.
Also, each of his paintings has its own story which is expressed however by the unsaid and an infinity of nuances all in roundness with softness and poetry. This explains the feeling of voluptuousness that one feels in contact with his work which tomorrow could well reach great heights. Without a doubt, the name of Marie-Claire Plante will leave an indelible mark on our painting today.
ARTISTIC CV
Individual exhibitions
2023
Tout l'univers est dans l'oeil, St-Hyacinthe, Gasnal &Gasnal
No limit, Gallery W, Gatineau Qc
2021
Change of scenery / Repatriate, Chambly cultural center
Ce qui ne tiens qu'à un fil, UP2Meet, Bromont, QC
2020
Back to basics, Galerie EG St-Sauveur
2019
Follow in his footsteps, Musée Beaulnes Coaticook
Footprints of Life, Galerie EG Mont Saint-Sauveur
Free spirit, Métissage Mégantic Gallery
2018
The great outdoors, Quebecor Exhibition Center, Sherbrooke
Interior space, Groupe Immex Sherbrooke
Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, Sherbrooke
Collective exhibitions
2023
Pêle-Mêle, 4 univers, L'espace Up2Meet, Bromont, Qc
Guest artiste Exposition concours AAPARS, QC
Symposium, Thetford Mines
2021
Symposium Art and passion Ste-Julie
2020
Diary of a Confined, Galerie EG St-Sauveur
2018-2019
Here we stretch time, John Henry Pope Culture House, Cookshire-Eaton
Food for thought, Galerie Le Studio, Georgeville
Dare yellow, Brompton Culture House
Without theme, Art Sutton Gallery
Imprints, Visa Art, Magog
Fall exhibition, Association of Affiliated Painters of the South Shore
2017
Intempor'Elles, Galerie l'Artiste, Montreal
Symposium with selection, Sainte-Flore
Symposium with selection, Danville
Studio Georgeville Gallery, Georgeville, Qc
Symposium Estiv'Art Magog honorary president
2016
Gruais-Grondin Art Gallery, Quebec
Magog Visual Art Center, Magog
Studio Georgeville Gallery, Georgeville
The great artistic trip, Sherbrooke
AAPARS St-Hilaire exhibition-competition
2015
Magog Visual Art Center, Magog
2005 to 2015
Several group exhibitions and symposiums across Quebec
Awards and recognition
2023 Honorable Mention, Artist of the Year award, Circle foundation for the arts
Honorable Mention, Mondial Art Academia, prix grand jury, abstract art
2022 Bronze Medal, Mondial Art Academia, prix grand jury Abstract art
2022 1e Prix Platinium Best of Red Abstract, Camelback, Arizona, USA
2021 1e Prix Platinium Best of Abstract art, Camelback, Arizona, USA
2021 Honorable mention Mondial Art Academia MAA, prix grand jury Abstract art
2021 2nd Prize for Abstract Art, Mascouche, Ministry of Culture and
communications from Quebec
2021 Special Merit Certificate, Light Space & Time Abstract Art, Florida
2019 Gold Medal Abstract Art, collective exhibition Fontdouce, France
2018 Granby Urban Colors Committee Award
2018 Winner of the Desjardins Choice Manoir Festival of Painters of Mascouche
2018 Honorary mention Lyst'art Lysters
2018 Silver medal in abstract art international competition Caesura
2017 Honorary President Symposium Estivart Magog
2016 First honorary prize in all categories at the AAPARS competition exhibition
2016 Special Merit Certificate for the work Lavande en tormente,
Abstract Art Competition Light Space & Time online gallery, Florida
2016 Works selected in front of a jury, exhibition and event catalog Visa Art, Magog
Press kit
Art Magazine Édition 6 2022 https://artmagazine.ca/lemagazine/edition6automneautumn2022?view=article&layout=edit&id=304
What to do this weekend?
Cynthia Dubé, Estrie Plus.com, November 23, 2018
The great outdoors by Marie-Claire Plante
Steve Bergeron, La Tribune, Sherbrooke, October 24, 2018
Marie-Claire Plante, The great outdoors / Quebecor Center
Le Vadrouilleur Urbain, October 17, 2018
Marie-Claire Plante's passion intact
Jean-François Gagnon, La Tribune, Sherbrooke, August 3, 2017
Magazin'Art 2015-2016-2017-2018-2019
Donations
Auction Sherbrooke School Board Foundation
Automn'art, Auction for the benefit of the Cegep de Sherbrooke foundation
