Her mother says she has “a deep need to paint”. At the age of 15, Mégane Fortin attracts everyone’s attention and arouses strong emotions wherever she exhibits her paintings, from Quebec to New York to California. A look at the amazing journey of this young Stoneham artist with amazing talent and a bright future.
Jessie Tremblay recognized her daughter’s love of art in kindergarten.
“She just drew all day. She came back to me every day with a stack of white sheets of all kinds of drawings, a little bit DIY but mostly drawings.
“In the first year,” she continues, it caused a problem. Since she had to see other topics in class, she no longer had time to draw. Every day when she arrived in the evening, she was sad, it didn’t work out. It’s as if she ran out of time to draw in her everyday life. It’s visceral.
There was a queue
This deep-seated need has never left her. Through attending courses and after an important meeting with her first teacher, Maurice Louis, Mégane Fortin discovered her passion for painting and abstract art.
It has become his life.
“Of course there are people who live without painting, but I don’t know how to do it,” says the gifted teenager, who met Le Journal with her mother and mentor Marie-Josée Lepine.
From his first show at Stoneham aged 9 it was amazing. All of his paintings find buyers. When Mégane does it again the following year, the result is the same. “On opening day, people lined up to enter. There were more than 150 people who came from all over Quebec,” his mother recalls, still surprised.
Artist’s website
Bonheur, a 2017 work by Mégane Fortin.
sharp instinct
Mégane Fortin has an innate talent. What distinguishes it? “A keen instinct for art,” replies Marie-Josée Lépine, who has been his teacher, guide and confidant for five years.
“I feel like it’s balanced, I feel like it’s talking. There is an energy in the movements, an emotion that is transferred to us. It cannot be taught. There are people who could be taught many techniques but don’t inherently have the natural articulation to do something beautiful, aesthetic, and that’s you.
“I get the impression it’s easy,” Mégane admits, without a hint of presumption in her voice. I have a feeling that with practice, anyone could do it. At first I watched my old teacher wield his knife and thought it looked difficult, but eventually I got to the level I teach. When I teach classes, I see students doing things that are similar to what I did when I first started. I think a lot of people would be able to do that. At this point you have to have the time, you have to develop your style, you have to like it.
Photo taken and provided by Jessie Tremblay
Mégane Fortin teaches students at Vision School in Sherbrooke on May 11th.
people cry
Based on the use of bright colors with a central element, the Mégane style seduces at first sight. It enabled him to exhibit as far away as California and recently at the famous Artexpo in New York, where his paintings were purchased by art lovers from Europe and across America.
Artist’s website
Butterfly, a work by Mégane Fortin, exhibited in New York, April 2023.
Artist’s website
Flamenco, a work by Mégane Fortin, exhibited in New York, April 2023.
Artist’s website
Sunset, a work by Mégane Fortin, exhibited in New York, April 2023.
Beyond Mégane’s controlled and flamboyant style, it’s the emotions her work evokes that captivates those around her.
“I remember a gentleman in Montreal. He wanted a canvas of a certain color. Look I almost had to calm him down, I thought he was going to pass out. It was so strong. People are so full of emotions in front of his pictures…” says his mother.
“There are even some who cry,” Mégane adds.
Doors are opened
Although she’s only 15, the young painter is now an “established artist” and her future “looks bright,” says her mentor.
“Mégane has always made choices that suited her, that were in line with her personality and her desires. I have the impression that many more doors will open. She will go in the direction that suits her,” believes Marie-Josée Lépine.
Mégane, whose next dream is to exhibit in Miami after learning “it’s the biggest after New York,” is quite rational about her future.
“I will always paint, but I don’t want to become a canvas factory that paints for money and depends on paint for a living. At some point I might run out of inspiration and I really don’t want that to happen. I like to paint when I feel like it and currently paint one to three times a week. I like that, the inspiration is always there.”
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Mégane Fortin and her mother Jessie Tremblay.
Forget the sad stories of parents putting too much pressure behind their child’s back. With the Fortin tremblays, it is Mégane who dictates the procedure to be followed.
“Everything comes from Mégane,” says her mother. I could almost say I never asked for anything. I feel like she’s in front of me and I’m running behind. And when I say I’m running, it’s because she wants business so badly and she has so many offers that she’s having a hard time following them.”
Marie-Josée Lépine quickly understood from their first meeting that Mégane really liked painting.
“I remember Mégane walking up the stairs and giving me the most beautiful smile. When I got home in the evening, I told my boyfriend that I fell in love immediately. I saw it was true, it was pure, it was well intentioned. Once we started working together, I realized his instinct was real.”
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Mégane Fortin and her mentor Marie-Josée Lépine have been working together for five years.
break free
Following instinct means doing yourself good through art.
“Sometimes, Mégane explains, I’m tired or I’ve experienced something at school and I want to free myself from it by painting. Then there are weekends when I’m super happy and want to paint.” […] It really helps me.”
“There was a night a couple of weeks ago that was really bad. I talked to my girlfriend, it was 10 p.m., the next day I had school, but I couldn’t help but paint. If it’s there, it’s there.
A strange phenomenon lies behind the dazzling colors of Mégane Fortin’s paintings. synesthesia, you know?
Synesthesia is a neurological condition that affects 4% of the population. It is characterized by the connection of two or more senses.
In the interview, the painter cites mathematics as an example. For them, “8 x 8 = 64 purple”. And 6 x 6 = 36? “It is red.”
The months of the year? November is purple, April is pink, May and June are green. Even his feelings have an assigned color.
“When she started school, she told me it was easy because all numbers had a color. I didn’t get it, I thought she was making up colors for her numbers, but that hasn’t changed and she’s 15. His brain works by color codes,” explains his mother.
Jessie Tremblay entertainingly recounts how her daughter fell in love with a tube of orange paint while walking down the aisles of an Omer DeSerres.
“You were super emotional,” she says, smiling.
“The orange was brilliant, it was really beautiful and it was new. I was very happy,” Mégane replies.
Artist’s website
Pic bois, a work by Mégane Fortin from her Émergence collection, exhibited in California in 2019.
Even if art lovers buy Mégane’s paintings, her relatives have decided not to raise the prices. For the moment.
In New York in April, Jessie Tremblay had priced her daughter’s works at $2 per square inch (between $1,000 and $2,000, depending on size) based on her Quebec rating. “I was told they should have been sold for twice as much.”
The painter’s mother, aware of the fact that there is already a head start, therefore prefers to slowly increase prices. “It’s the art market, we can’t close our eyes to it, but we want it to remain accessible to Quebecers.”
To keep Mégane’s art accessible, her abstract creations can already be found on derivative products: toques, microbrewery beer labels, sneakers.
“That means my friends can get some. Otherwise they would never be able to buy canvases,” says Mégane.
The money raised from her sales is used primarily to fund the purchase of her gear (she regularly “goes shopping” at Omer DeSerres) and travel expenses, notes Jessie Tremblay.
“We’ve been to California twice, we’re coming back from New York. It’s thousands of dollars. In U.S. As a mother, I couldn’t give that to my daughter. If she didn’t have her sales, she wouldn’t be able to experience this. The sale pushes her ever further and removes the financial limitations she might face.
Image provided by Jessie Tremblay
Mégane Fortin’s work is already the subject of a retrospective for sale on her website.