I’m Zoé Desbiens, a contemporary abstract painter based in Vancouver, Canada.
I’ve always been drawn to how the mood of a place can shift: the charged stillness before a storm, the force of waves meeting the shore, the way light can transform a familiar scene. I’m fascinated by these in-between moments, when something is unsettled, changing or holding more than one quality at once. These impressions find their way into my paintings, where familiar forms hover somewhere between recognition and the unknown.
I work intuitively, building my paintings through texture and layers. I add paint, scrape it back, cover parts of the surface and bring others into view. Earlier colours and marks remain beneath what comes next, leaving traces of the painting’s history. I see a connection between this process and the way we move through life: our experiences shape us, even when they’re no longer fully visible on the surface.
I love that people can look at the same painting and see entirely different things: a wave, a mountain, a memory, somewhere they’ve been, or a feeling they can’t quite put into words. Sometimes a painting simply draws you in, or feels familiar in a way you can’t explain. I like leaving that space open, so you can find your own connection to the work.
I paint from my studio at 1000 Parker Street in East Vancouver, and you’re invited to come see my work in person. The textures, metallics and details shift with the light, revealing different things as you move around the paintings.
