A Mile Above Moving

Gilda Pontbriand is a painter based in Ottawa, Canada, whose art is rooted in the years she lived in Mexico — the time that, in her words, gave structure to her life and set the basis for her work. Moving fluidly between abstraction and figuration, she paints in oil, on silk, and in monoprint, and also works in photography. Color is her essential element: strong, confident drawing wrapped in an ethereal softness, compositions that stay simple and elegant while carrying a deep charge of feeling. For Pontbriand, painting is a constant search with a spiritual dimension — a movement between the mundane and a magical world. She organizes her work into series drawn from her environment, her dreams, and her inner world, inviting the viewer to read the emotion behind each piece rather than any literal scene. Her "Mirage" series — with works such as Ellarbol, Mujarbol, Nirvana, and Nenufemme — fuses the female figure with trees, water, and light into dreamlike, almost mythic images. Her broader body of work ranges from floral studies and Mayan glyphs to portraiture and pure abstraction.