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Montreal artist highlights textures in show that opens tonight

SARANAC LAKE – Montreal artist France Jauron always knew she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become an artist.

“My dad was a painter, she said. “I learned how to hold a brush before holding a pen.”

Growing up, Jauron’s father would gather her siblings and cousins and give them art lessons. When it came time to choose a career, however, Jauron chose a different path and worked as an accountant for 25 years. During that time, she still painted, but she didn’t pursue it full-time. When she turned 50 a few years ago, however, she decided she needed a change.

“When we turn 50, sometimes strange things happen,” she said. “I decided to follow my childhood dream.”

Jauron took a two-year sabbatical and began studying at the Visual Art Center in Montreal. She was interested in utilizing new techniques and materials in her work, and, after studying for two years, she realized she still wasn’t quite able to realize her vision of the world around her, so she decided to dedicate another two years of her life to study.

All the while, Jauron, an avid hiker, was visiting the Adirondacks and finding inspiration for her work among the rocks, trees and bark of our region.

“I have been hiking the Adirondacks for 20 years now, and I have been fascinated the entire time by textures,” she said.

Jauron uses acrylic material to create low relief sculptures. Traditionally, she said, low relief sculptures use clay and plaster, but the flexibility and versatility of acrylic paste appeals to her.

“It allows me to do exactly what I want to do,” she said. “I really wanted to mimic the trunks and the trees. I’m fascinated by bark, what’s behind bark, when you have the naked tree.”

Jauron said her sculptures are usually about an inch thick. She mainly uses earthtones to reflect the natural world around her, and she is fascinated by the forms she encounters while hiking. Unlike many artists, Jauron said she is more interested in form than in detail.

“It’s funny because I don’t really see the details,” she said. “There are people that see details in things, in a bird feather. I don’t see these details, but I see the forms. I see the textures.

“When I create, I start with a paste that I created. I start to play with it with a knife, and after a while, I see something in the paste, and so I stop working with it, and with a small tool, I kind of sculpt it when it’s wet.”

Jauron then dries the paste for two to four weeks. The paste changes a bit as it dries, and she said she is then able to see something representational within the piece that she may not have noticed when she felt the impulse to stop.

“It’s like I don’t know exactly what I see, but I just know that I have to stop,” she said. “When it dries, then … I see something.”

Jauron said she loves creating her acrylic sculptures and hopes her work will evoke the same fascination with forms she feels for the world around her.

“If people can be touched by what I do, I’m going to be extremely happy,” she said.

NorthWind Fine Arts will hold an opening reception for “Roots,” Jauron’s first solo show, tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. Her work will be on display there through the month of April.

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