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Micheline Lamarre Hadjis

Canadian artist, Micheline Lamarre Hadjis, loves color. Her paintings are rich with vibrant hues. The images draw the viewer into another world where light and shadow, contrast and form burst from the canvas with vitality and luminosity.

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Canadian artist, Micheline Lamarre Hadjis, loves color. Her paintings are rich with vibrant hues. The images draw the viewer into another world where light and shadow, contrast and form burst from the canvas with vitality and luminosity.

Hadjis worked with bright colors, textures and shapes in her former occupation as a fashion designer. Then, she investigated translucence and light as a stained glass artisan. She then developed precise feathered brush techniques and played with concepts of depth and perception as a porcelain painter and ceramicist. Finally, she brought these elements to the canvas armed with courses taken involving the use of mixed media. In an interview with Gallery Direct, she said, “…that was an eye opener as well as liberation from the constrictions of figurative painting with all the details.”



Hadjis says that her most difficult and creative paintings are her marine scenes. Although she does not take the plunge into the ocean every time she needs to study a fish, she does browse books on marine life, sea anemones, corals, exotic fish and marine vegetation in order to compose a totally original scene. Hadjis says that her compositions are always based on colors.



She says, “…painting colorful and exotic paintings brings me to another realm where I forget our long and cold winters. Not being able to experience the sight, smell and beauty of… the fascinating tropical fish in their habitat all becomes an evasion of the senses.”



Hadjis likes to paint on canvas wrapped with 100 percent unbleached cotton. She then prepares the surface with a medium acrylic. This preparation allows her to get the fluidity of the paint she prefers on her backgrounds. She then paints the figures with fluid acrylics in an opaque layer over the background. The desired effect takes many hours to achieve. On occasion, Hadjis will incorporate molding paste, iridescent acrylics, granular gels and gold mica into her paintings.



She says, “Abstracts are a challenge but very therapeutic in their own way as you can only control the pigments to a certain degree; it is like working with a partner, he gives, then you give.”



Her preferred environment in which she enjoys working is a vast room with a lot of light that is quiet with no music or television blaring in the background—just peace and solitude without any distractions.



Hadjis has experienced the ups and downs of the art world—great successes, such as a gallery coming over to her house and buying a whole load of paintings, as well as rejections. She has accumulated wisdom and advice for painters dealing with rejection. She told Gallery Direct, “There are always aches when you are rejected with different events or galleries but you learn that it is not necessarily your work but the parameters of their needs.”



The artist has exhibited extensively in Canada including galleries in Montreal, Pointe-Claire, Trois-Rivieres, Beaconsfield, Lancaster in Ontario and Kirkland. In the spring and summer of 2007, she was featured in an exhibition entitled “Fantasea” that ran for six months at the Arizona Museum for Youth in Mesa, Arizona.



Hadjis has been commissioned for murals and unique pieces. She works closely with interior designers on custom projects that strive to meet the needs of clients. She has a license agreement with Artwork on Tiles in North Carolina, which uses her images to reproduce murals in ceramic, porcelain, glass and marble.



Hadjis is listed in the Répertoire Biennal des Artistes Canadiens en galerie 2006-2007 de MagazinArt et présidente de l’Association des Artistes de Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada.



What Hadjis loves most about being an artist is the satisfaction she gets from the appreciation she receives from people all over the world who buy her paintings and enjoy looking at them.



Hadjis prints and greeting cards will soon be available for purchase at The X-RAY MAG Store and Ocean Arts Gallery. For more information or to purchase original art work or archival signed limited edition fine art prints directly from the artist, please visit her website at: www.michelinehadjis.com

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