Jean-Frances has always lived in Canada where she was born. She can’t remember not painting. She has taught art for over twenty-five years in the community and privately. In 1976 she received her degree in Fine Arts, Humanities from McMaster University and has continued to both give and take art workshops in a variety of media. She has worked extensively in the community to promote the arts and was instrumental in1991 in founding the Chaleur Nepisiguit Association for Arts and Culture, now the Bathurst Art Society.
She exhibits annually with the Bathurst Art Society show and has participated in shows at the Bathurst Community College, the Little Gallery in Bathurst, the Nepisiguit Library in Bathurst, the Restigouche Gallery in Campbellton, the former Ring Gallery in Saint John and the Queen-Saulter Library in Toronto. These were exhibitions of drawings in ink and pencil, watercolour street scenes and a miniature series of eight block prints done in black ink on white paper.
From 1990 to 1995 she wrote a weekly “Art Talk” column for The Northern Light newspaper.. In 1997 she self-published “There’s a Dragon in Bathurst”, a children’s book about a dragon who is created from landmarks in the Bathurst area. The book was nominated for and received a Lieutenant Governor’s literacy award in 1998.
She enjoys doing pencil portraits of people and pen and ink sketches of houses. Much of her colour work is in watercolour, and she also paints landscapes in acrylic.
