Until January 24, 2024, the Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges presents the exhibition Il en reste quelque chose... by artist Fabienne Legrand.

Following her participation in several group exhibitions at the Museum, including Terre-maires 2, De nouEs à vous and Un bardeau pour toi, she now presents her solo exhibition.

"It's a great achievement," she says. " At the same time, this Museum feels like home. It's like giving me a big, comforting hug," she confides.

" Il en reste quelque chose..." it's an exhibition that has evolved and changed since the idea first germinated in the artist's mind. Tired of constantly seeing beauty associated with youth in the media, she wanted to give the elders their turn to shine again, to show them as beautiful, strong and brilliant, men and women of experience, resources and memories, full people who had experienced great loves, great successes and great failures.

And then her father's health deteriorated. Without her realizing it, her artistic approach changed. She portrayed them as pensive, distant, even absent. In the end, no matter where you are in old age, there's always something left...

Her works, most of them in watercolor on a variety of media (wood, metal, canvas, paper), present people of the 3rd age in portrait or in action, in all their beauty and wisdom.

With memories at the heart of her artistic approach, she sees the elderly as the very symbol of remembrance.

A rising artist

Born in Laval to Belgian parents, Fabienne arrived in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region at the age of nine. From an early age, she was encouraged to create. Surrounded by a family of artists, she was constantly inspired, spending her life doodling and embellishing her surroundings. She lived her life in order: study, work, marriage, children.

After staying at home with the children for almost 10 years, she had to prepare a return to work, but was overwhelmed by the idea of practicing a profession in which she no longer had the slightest interest.

So she went back to school to study horticulture, and it was while working on the farm that the possibility of a career in the arts presented itself.

She was realizing a dream she'd never dared to dream. It was the start of a wonderful adventure. Since then, her artistic career has been marked by numerous solo and group exhibitions, public art projects and cultural mediation activities.

She has exhibited at the Maison Trestler as part of the TRACE project, participated in several art projects for the City of Vaudreuil-Dorion, completed an artist residency at the Maison de Félix-Leclerc and was part of a group show at the MUSO in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.

Now a visual arts teacher, her six years with the Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges enabled her to assert herself as an artist and take flight.

Meet the artist

The artist talk will take place on Sunday, January 14, from 2 to 4 pm.

Regular admission fees apply. The Musée is open Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Please note that it will be closed from December 23, 2023 to January 5, 2024 inclusive.

To find out more about activities at the Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges: mrvs.qc.ca