Brigitte Curt Biography

Why I paint

I have painted for love, for memory, for forgiveness, for hope, for passion,
to find myself,
to hold hands with the whole world.

I have painted to fly with the birds, sing like a child,
invent the poetry of colors.

I have painted to be a cloud, luminous in the clear blue sky,
a field of sunflowers, in a hot summer day,
a wave, always the same and always anew,
like a firework against the rock of life.

I painted to live, I painted to dream,
I painted to heal,
I painted to be free.
 
I paint to hold other people's heart in my hand,
hear their laughter, see the tears of joy in their eyes,
be by their side as they fill themselves with the light from my world.

I paint because words are too thin and sounds are gone.
I paint to make the pigments of earth reach the stars.

I paint with innocence and gratitude.

  And above all, I paint so that you know, Beauty is inside of you.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
  • The Parkside Gallery, Carmel, One woman show - April 2005
  • Open Spaces, Recent Landscapes, Woodside Corporate Environment Gallery, March to June 2003
  • Colton Museum, Monterey, November 2002 - January 2003
  • Jewels of the Baylands, Landscapes, E. Norton Gallery, Pacific Art League, April 2002
  • Los Altos Hills, Fremont Country Club, March - April 2002
  • California Academy of Painters Exhibition, Studio B Gallery, Hayward, CA, Jan. 2002
  • Sharon Park Gallery, Menlo Park, CA, Plein Air Landscape, 1999
  • Pantheon Fine Arts, Sunnyvale, CA, Plein Air Landscape, 1998 
  • Maturango Museum, Ridgecrest, CA , Plein Air Landscape, 1994
  • Rosicrucian Museum, San Jose, CA , Plein Air Landscape, 1994
Selected Group Exhibitions
  • Los Gatos Art Festival, Plein Air competition and exhibition, 2004
  • Oil Painters of America, National Juried Show, Nichols Taos Fine Art,Taos, May 2003
  • National Association of Women Artists, Juried show  "Illumination", New York, Jan. 2003
  • Attleboro Museum, MA, "Inspired by the Land", 2002, National Assoc. Women Artists
  • Bristol Art Museum, Rhode Island, National Assoc. Women Artists, Member Juried, 2001
  • California View Gallery, Los Gatos, CA, Landscapes of Provence, 2001
  • Carmel Art Festival  & Plein Air Painting Competition Invitational, May 2001
  • Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, "A Road Less Traveled", landscape show, May 2001
  • Victoria Boyce Gallery, Plein Air show, Scottsdale, AZ, March 2001
  • Echoes and Visions IV, Laguna Niguel fourth annual juried fine art show, CA, March 2001
  • Oil Painters of America Representational, National Competition, Palm Desert, CA, 2001
  • Carmel Art Festival and Plein Air Painting Competition Invitational, May 2000
  • Hollis Street Project, Emeryville, CA, "Ten Into Two Thousand", 2000
  • Robson Gallery, San Diego, CA, " Small Work by Emerging Artists",  1999
  • Sharon Park Gallery, Menlo Park, CA, 1999
  • Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA, 1998
  • Cottage Gallery, Carmel, CA, 1997 - 1998
  • Dassin Gallery, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1996 - 1999
  • Salies de Bearn, France, Plein Air International Competition, "Salies A Peindre", 1996 -1997
  • Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA, 1995 - 1999
  • Pacific Art League of Palo Alto, CA,  Landscape show, & Centennial exhibition, 1994
  • Oil Painters of America, Western States Competition, Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, 1993 
  • Audubon Artists 51st Juried Annual Exhibition, New York, NY, 1993
Representation
  • Gasov & Gurule Gallery
  • Smith-Klein Gallery in Boulder, CO
  • Ars Longa Gallery
  • Kneeland Gallery
Associations
  • California Academy of Painters, non profit educational association of artists, Palo Alto, CA, Founding Member, Education Director
  • American Impressionist Society, Forestville, CA
  • National Association of Women Artists, New York, NY
  • Oil Painters of America Representational, Elmhurst, IL
Publications
  • Lynne Moss, "Brigitte Curt - Making the Landscape your own" , American Artist Magazine, September 1999
  • Listed in "Who's Who in the West", 2000
  • Public painting demonstration, TV Channel 6, Palo Alto, CA, 1997
  • Public painting demonstration, local TV Channel, Ridgecrest, CA, 1994
Grants
  • Peninsula Community Foundation, Grant to study landscape on location for 4 weeks at  the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Russia,  Summer 2002
Teaching Positions
  • Group leader and instructor, painting workshop "Lavender in Provence", France, 2001-2005
  • Instructor, California Academy of Painters, Plein Air Landscape classes, 1992 - 2005
  • Demonstrator and juror for local artists groups, San Francisco Bay Area, 1995 - 2005
  • Group leader and instructor,  painting workshop in Bearn, France, 1998 - 1999
  • Instructor, Palo Alto Art Center, CA, classes, "Techniques of Oils", 1996 - 2005
  • Instructor, Palo Alto Art Center, CA, series of workshops," Large landscape in the Studio" "Amazing Greys",  "Black and White, Back to the Basics", 1997 -2005
  • Studio Assistant for Ovanes Berberian workshops, Carpinteria, CA, 1994 - 1997
  • Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA, "Color Theory," and "Techniques of oil," 1994 - 1997
  • City of Menlo Park, CA, "Creative Composition" , "Techniques of oil" classes, 1993 - 1996
Training in Art
  • Academy of Art, St. Petersburg, Russia, Plein Air Landscape training course,  3 week intensive, Starya Ladoga, 2002
  • Painting in remote Northern villages of Russia and Valaam Island, 2 weeks with local artists, 2002
  • Visiting Artist with the Saint Petersburg Academy of Art, Russia, January 2001
  • Brigitte became an assistant in Ovanes Berberian workshops in 1995 and for the following 3 years was present on the floor of all of his workshops in Carpinteria . During that period she also painted with Ovanes in Idaho . In recent years Jim Smyth and Brigitte Curt had Ovanes as a guest in Provence on the high plateau where Jim and Brigitte live during the summer. They spent the Summer painting the hilltop medieval villages and lavender fields in the country.
    The ongoing contacts, painting sessions, critiques and support from her friend and mentor, Ovanes Berberian, has made it possible for Brigitte to grow at a rapid pace under his guidance, while developing an esthetic of her own.
    The Winter of 2007 will see Ovanes, Brigitte and Jim visiting St. Petersburg, Russia , where the emphasis will be on studying the Russian paintings in the Russian museums. They will meet with contemporary artists such as Ivan Vityuk with which Brigitte painted in the Summer of 2002, as well as other historic figures still alive today.
  • Continuing studies with Ovanes Berberian since 1995
  • Continuing landscape studies on location with Ted Goerschner 1993 - 1995
  • Daniel Green Portrait workshop 1992
  • San Jose State University & Santa Cruz Extension University 1989 - 1991
  • Pacific Art League of Palo Alto, continuing academic studies with Jim Smyth:  Artists' materials, Basic Drawing, Rendering, Figure Drawing,
  • Portrait Painting, Still Life, Color Theory, Composition, Perspective, 1987- 1994
  • Canada & De Anza College, Academics of painting, Life Drawing, photography, 1988 - 1992

All contents © copyright 1997-2003 Brigitte Curt and Jim Smyth. All rights reserved.