Brigitte Desautels' art is derived from her personal experiences and observations. Her collages, like pages in a journal, contain a record of her life experiences and what she observes around her through imagery that comes from her inner world where imagination and feeling reign.

''My art is based on visual impressions of images, objects, and people that I abstract and redesign in my mind. Aspects of places I have lived, people I have known, and every day events appear throughout my work."

Brigitte has a natural talent for using color which was recognized early on by her professors at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts de Clermont-Ferrand in France. Later, she spent a year in art school in North Africa where she developed a deeper appreciation of color. She explains, "The mixture of colors found in the Middle East culture is so extraordinary. The contrast of those colors against the whites of the buildings affected me greatly. I start with a brilliant palette of color and then introduce grays and blacks to dull them down just a bit."

Her collages appear to be recording a series of impressions of what she has seen in her travels, day-to-day life, or cataloged in her memory. They are short stories that hold a feeling or memory that she finds most easy to capture and express through her art. Each collage tells a different personal story like one entitled 'Turbulence' below that depicts the architecture of her homeland, the village, castles and her roots amidst a chaotic swirling black pattern. This collage was chosen to be part of a juried show at the Cambridge Art Association entitled ‘Red: It’s More Than a Color, Metaphor, Feeling, Idea or Hue'.

'Torbillon' featuring a whirlpool of figures gathers imagery from tougher times. ‘Ceilloux’ details a beautiful window she always admired on her brother's manor in France. 'Attrapez le Soleil' or ('Reach for the Sun') depicts her three children and portrays her deepest wish for them. 'Instinctive' with its horizontal bands of color was not an attempt to tell a story but to allow her intuitive side to have free reign and to simply allow herself to play with color and pattern to her heart's content.

Brigitte sells reproduction prints of her work on Esty at www.brigittescards.etsy.com. She also works in watercolors, oils, raku pottery, and has produced a series of raku pottery masks that she has hanging in her home. In addition, she runs a greeting card business, Brigitte's Cards, with a catalog of more than 600 designs. You can buy her greeting cards in local area stores including the Harvard General Store, Bolton Orchards and Plantasia in Bolton, and Ralph Jordan and Willow Books in Acton. For more information contact her at brigitte@brigittescards.com.