Suzanne D’Amours
Suzanne D’Amours is a Quebec-based painter whose practice blends intuition, structure, and emotional depth. Trained in graphic design at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), she worked for more than a decade in the advertising industry before returning to her lifelong passion for painting. What began as figurative explorations evolved into a bold abstract language inspired by masters such as Matisse, Picasso, and Riopelle. Her works are defined by the tension between fluid spontaneity and precise composition, resulting in a visual world where chaos and order coexist. In 2019, she received the Armand Vaillancourt Prize at the Rencontre des Arts in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Today, D’Amours continues to develop her practice with authenticity, perseverance, and an ever-renewed spirit of exploration.
Between Chaos and Order: The Abstract Worlds of Suzanne D’Amours
By Sfumato
Suzanne D’Amours’ solo exhibition offers a vivid exploration of painting as both process and discovery. Each canvas is a field of experimentation where movement, matter, and intuition converge. Defined by the tension between freedom and control, her works embody a dialogue in constant flux: gestures are made and erased, textures are built and scraped away, forms emerge only to be deconstructed again. What remains is not a fixed image but a living surface, charged with energy and presence. Her creative path has been anything but linear. Initially trained in the sciences, D’Amours chose to follow her true calling in the arts, studying graphic design at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). A decade-long career in advertising sharpened her skills in precision, structure, and visual balance. Yet it was her return to painting—first through figurative work, then abstraction—that allowed her to fully channel her need for self-expression. Influenced by masters such as Matisse, Picasso, Riopelle, the Impressionists and Expressionists, she developed a language that is unmistakably her own: intuitive, layered, and deeply rooted in contrast.
Her paintings are built through an organic process of construction and deconstruction. Starting with spontaneous gestures, she adds and removes layers, scratches into surfaces, and introduces textures that both reveal and conceal. This method produces works that feel both raw and refined, expressive and carefully balanced. The dialogue between chaos and order lies at the heart of her art: organic, fluid movements meet graphic, controlled forms; dense color fields are offset by luminous spaces. D’Amours’ work is not only visual but profoundly sensorial. The physicality of her process—working on paper before moving to larger canvases—brings a bodily presence to each piece. Viewers are invited to step closer, to trace the gestures and textures, and to feel the rhythms of creation and erasure. Her paintings are not answers, but open invitations to experience the world through color, material, and emotion.
In 2019, her artistic achievements were recognized with the Armand Vaillancourt Prize at the Rencontre des Arts in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Yet for D’Amours, awards are only markers along a greater journey. What matters most is the daily practice of painting, the perseverance to face doubt, and the courage to push further into the unknown.
This exhibition captures her commitment to evolution. Far from repeating formulas, she seeks constant renewal, allowing her work to grow alongside her. In doing so, D’Amours reminds us that art is never static—it is a reflection of life’s shifting states, a balance always in motion between chaos and order.
