“I am drawn to wide open spaces where the earth meets the sky. These boundless expanding horizons are most liberating for my spirit and creative imagination.”

Growing up near the town of Pincourt on Île Perrot, an island southwest of Montreal, Gail Descoeurs was surrounded by forests and rivers, an environment that she would explore thoroughly as a child. She recalls being especially pleased to receive an umbrella as a gift because it would allow her to stay outdoors even in stormy weather.

Family life in the Descoeurs household was lively. Descoeurs is the second oldest of four daughters, all of whom were musical. Encouraged by their parents, Jean-Guy and Claudette Descoeurs, everyone learned to play at least one instrument so that the whole family could play together. Descoeurs began with the guitar, and added the clarinet when she was in high school.

Her interest in art was nurtured on Sunday “drawing walks” when she accompanied her father on his weekly rambles in search of motifs. It was during these walks that she first learned to draw, and to capture the essence of the natural world around her. Eventually, she would begin photographing the natural world as well, a strategy that she subsequently incorporated into her work as a painter.

Her primary focus in high school was the study of physics, chemistry and math which she hoped would prove useful in an eventual career as a veterinarian. Regrettably, it also had the effect of preventing her from taking either art courses or drafting, both of which she had hoped to explore. After graduation in 1979, she sought out a local veterinarian who agreed to let her spend a day at an animal hospital in the area. That experience highlighted her innate squeamishness and made it clear that veterinary college was not a direction she should pursue.

After a reassuring discussion with her parents, Descoeurs realized that she could find a summer job and spend some time considering what direction would best suit her. Fortuitously she picked up her father’s easel that summer and tried her hand at oil painting. Looking back now, she recalls “I laugh at that painting today. It was so bad”. Bad or not, it was the beginning of a new path. Her father’s encouragement sustained her and allowed her to discover how to paint at her own pace.

Meanwhile, a summer job for Hewitt Caterpillar would provide a new direction of a different sort. Working as a clerk in the engineering department, she found herself fascinated by the drafting work, realizing that it offered a unique combination of art and math. That fall, she attended John Abbott College where she studied drafting for electrical systems. Her employer later added training in hydraulics and mechanics to her studies. By 1980, she accepted a permanent job there and would ultimately stay for over two decades. Instead of working at a drafting table, however, Descoeurs soon found herself being trained on the company’s first CAD system, the computer-based design and drafting program that remains the foundation of engineering and architecture today.

Although she enjoyed her work as a mechanical drafter, Descoeurs eventually showed her artwork to her colleagues, who encouraged her not only to keep painting, but also to consider selling her work at local art fairs. The outdoor fairs involved a sizable amount of work, but they served Descoeurs well as a means of building her reputation as an artist. Most of her paintings were small, but they sold quickly and established her as a respected local artist. By 1990, she participated in her first exhibition—the Art Expo in Alexandria, Ontario.

Descoeurs’ work was well received at the Art Expo, leading her to contemplate the possibility of working as an artist. Her father, always supportive of her artistic efforts, introduced her to the work of Robert Bateman (b. 1930), a Canadian wildlife painter, whose career demonstrated that it was—in fact—entirely possible to make a living as a painter.

In her personal life, Descoeurs began a long-term relationship around this same time. Her eldest son was born in 1990, and two years later, she welcomed her second son. A daughter would be born in 2000. Throughout the 1990s, she continued to work at Hewlitt-Caterpillar and to develop her interest in art. The perennial art fairs became a means of not only expanding her artistic horizons, but also of establishing a wide network of colleagues who introduced her to the Montreal art world.

By the turn of the millennia, Descoeurs was hoping to loosen up her style of painting, which she felt had become overly influenced by her drafting style. With that in mind, she enrolled in a class with the artist Ming Ma (b. 1955) who was living in Montreal at the time. His abstract watercolors offered an example of a broader and looser approach to the medium. In particular, she found a deeper meaning in his advice that “all is nothing; nothing is everything” As she had hoped, the work with Ming Ma did expand her style, and it seems to have prompted more serious thought about developing a career as an independent artist.

The first step toward that goal was Descoeurs’ decision to teach a class in oil painting. In preparation, she turned to the study of art history. She recalls “I realized that if I was going to teach, I had to become a student again. I would need to study other artists’ techniques, other styles in order to help students explore their own creativity. A few days after I made the decision to teach, I was gifted a huge pile of art books from an artist who was retiring. I love the synchronicity of life!” She soon discovered the work of the 19th century American painters known as the Hudson River School; George Inness, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church and Martin Johnson Heade were favorites.

As she gained confidence in her teaching, she also explored new directions in her own work, adding occasional surrealistic elements to her well-established representational imagery. The next few years would bring even more changes. She and her partner of many years decided to separate, and Descoeurs was suddenly a single mom. Over the next few years, she would exhibit her work at several annual expositions throughout Québec, and by 2006, she left her job as a mechanical drafter to become a full-time artist. Looking back, she notes that it has not always been easy, but that she has often found solace in a quotation attributed to Aristotle that “through discipline comes freedom”.

Success would follow. The Galerie Ouest in Saint-Anne-De-Bellevue, Québec hosted Descoeurs’ first solo show in 2009, resulting in the first feature article to cover her work in American Artist Magazine the following September. Five years later, she would win the Best of Show prize for her painting, Soul Mates, in the Avenue Art Gallery Brush Off Competition in Montreal. She also continues to teach as time permits.

Today, Descoeurs lives in St. Lazare, Québec with her partner Tony. Their children are nearby, and their home is surrounded by nature, just as Descoeurs’ childhood home had been. In recent years, she has been able to travel quite widely, going to Italy in 2023 and hoping to be in Scotland and Ireland in the future. Each place offers a new landscape, new vistas and of course, a rich selection of historic art. Her goal is to keep evolving as an artist and “to continue to bring viewers to beautiful places of quietude.”

Janet Whitmore, Ph.D.

Group Exhibitions

2023    Rehs Contemporary Gallery, The Seasons Exploring Nature’s Palette, New York, NY,
2017    Hudson and Region Studio Tour, Hudson, Québec.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition,Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
2016    Reves d’Automne Festival, Baie St-Paul, Charlevoix Québec.
2015    Reves d’Automne Festival, Baie St-Paul, Charlevoix Québec.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
2014    Avenue Art Gallery Brush off Competition, Montreal, Quebec.
            Reves d’Automne Festival, Baie St-Paul, Charlevoix Québec.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition in Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            ACL Contest – Arabella Design
2013    Hudson and Region Studio Tour, Hudson, Québec.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
2012    Hudson Artist Association Exhibition, Hudson, Quebec
            Hudson and Region Studio Tour, Hudson, Québec.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
2011    Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition in Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            Hudson Artist Association Exhibition in Hudson, Québec
2010    Hudson Artist Association Exhibition, Hudson, Quebéc
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            Avenue Art Gallery Brush Off Competition, Montreal, Québec
2009    Galerie Espace 127 Exhibition, Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec
            Hudson and Region Studio Tour, Hudson, Québec.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            A Temps Perdu Exhibition, Hudson, Québec.
2008    Ronald McDonald House Fundraiser Exhibition, Laval, Québec.
            Hudson and Region Studio Tour, Hudson, Québec.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            Art Expo Maison Trestler,Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec.
2007    Hudson Artist Association Exhibition in Hudson, Quebéc.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association in Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition in Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            Art Expo Maison Trestler in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec.
            Art Expo, Merrickville, Ontario.
2006    Art Expo Gallery Harwood, Hudson, Québec.
            Hudson Artist Association Exhibition, Hudson, Quebéc.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
2005    Hudson Artist Association Exhibition, Hudson, Quebéc
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            Art Expo Maison Trestler, Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec.
2004    Hudson Artist Association Exhibition, Hudson, Quebéc.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
            Art Expo Maison Trestler, Vaudreuil-Dorion, Québec.
2003    Hudson Artist Association Exhibition, Hudson, Quebéc
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
2002    Hudson Artist Association Exhibition, Hudson, Quebéc.
            Expo Plein Air with the Lakeshore Artist Association, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Lakeshore Artist Association Exhibition, Baie D’Urfe, Québec.
2001    Art Expo Lake Of Two Mountains, Hudson, Québec.
2000    Art Expo Lake of Two Mountains ,Hudson, Québec.
1999    Art Expo Plein Air Jardin d`Henriette, St-Lazare, Québec.
            Galerie d’Art du Cercle, Expo Permanent for the Artistes Peintre et
             Sculpteur du Québec Laval, Québec.
            Art Expo Place Ville Marie Chamber of Commerce, Montreal, Québec.
            Art Expo Lake Of Two Mountains in Hudson, Québec.
1998    Art Expo Lake Of Two Mountains, Hudson, Québec.
1997    Hudson Art Gallery Exhibition, Hudson, Québec.
            Art Expo Arkadia, Pointe-Claire, Québec.
            Art Expo Lake Of Two Mountains, Hudson, Québec.
1996    Art Expo Lake Of Two Mountains in Hudson, Québec.
1995    Art Expo Lake Of Two Mountains in Hudson, Québec.
1990    Art Expo, Alexandria, Ontario