Gladys Barbot Desmangles Biography

I started drawing under the direction of my father and playing with paint at an early age. These activities soon became pure necessity, like the need we have to breathe. I did and continue to create for my own joy and fulfillment, hoping to convey these same feelings to my viewers. I consider myself as self-taught for, only after experiencing some success in my trade, I attended L'Ecole des Beaux Arts de Montreal and North Light Art School. I studied under the supervision of prestigious Artists such as Georgh Rausch, Charles Sovek, Conrado Contreras and Luisa Julian. I feel extremely blessed to have ever since, received enthusiastic responses from collectors the world over and have participated and won many awards in several shows in Canada: Montreal, Ste. Genevieve, Laval, Festival des Arts Joliettel, in Mexico: Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Calle del Arte, ASA - Ajijic and in the United States: Silver Spring (private show), French Embassy (Alliance Francaise) in Washington DC. Several of my paintings have been used to illustrate books in Russia, Mexico and Canada. My paintings were among the five Best Sellers at Paintings Direct USA from 1999 to 2009.

Artist's Statement

Figurative Artist Gladys Barbot Desmangles says that most of the time she is inspired by people in their daily activities. She shows them with a pared down, minimum amount of detail, either not showing or very vaguely suggesting their faces. Showing faces, in her view, is not the only means for an artist to convey expressiveness and feelings. She favors lines and clearly shows pencil or pen marks on her finished work or uses the underpainting as a line marker. Her palette uses warm colors, ochres and many earth tones and purples. Her goal is to express warmth and subtle cheerfulness through her work.