A painters' painter, Bruneau tackles her metier with the exuberance of a child and the astuteness of a sage. She draws from a range of symbols, her own personal assortment of visual notations that take the form of fish, birds, boats, but also faces and masks, thus oscillating between reality and fantasy, the inner and outer world, and all the time keeping true to her visual lexicon.

It would be facile to compare her works to those of Picasso, Antonio Saura or Mimmo Paladino. What all these artists have in common, more than their particular imagery and palette, is a powerful energy that drives their creativity. Free and audacious, these painters consistently, persistently labour on the side of artistic expression, all else be damned. Kittie Bruneau tends towards the large format in her paintings; that kind of energy must be difficult to hold in check, and it is to her enormous credit that she does so with the same ease as when she releases it.  Once she embarks on a painting, Bruneau in effect begins a kind of dance. She literally steps into her work; standing on, walking over the canvas spread on the floor, creating, sowing the images as she moves across it. There is no rush, the steps are deliberate, the gestures unencumbered yet controlled, the colours leading the way in this dazzling visual pageant.  The works in this exhibition have been handpicked by Andrew Lui, the owner of Han Art gallery and a formidable painter in his own right. It must have been a daunting task, for the selection spans a period of almost 40 years of Bruneau's prolific career. Inspired by the Dutch artist, Lucebert, known as the poet of the CoBrA avant-garde movement active in Europe between 1948 and 1951, he must have seen echoes of that exciting style in Bruneau's work. Based on spontaneity and experimentation, it took inspiration from children's drawings, as well as the stylized, primitive forms found in the works of such artists as Joan Mirò and Paul Klee.  Bruneau's tableaux, influences notwithstanding, are staunchly hers, and at one point comparisons begin to wear thin. Her art is hers alone, her compositions and shapes speak of her inner vision and creative compulsion, and ultimately tell the tale of her personal artistic experimentation. Each could be seen as a chapter, an entry in a continuing visual diary.  The energy imbuing Hunguedo I delivers a virtual blow to the viewer. The gestures are almost frenetic yet controlled; the entire composition simply exploding, forcing the eye to dance from shape to shape, tripping on the vibrating colours, getting tangled in this dizzying plastic landscape. There is a sense of overlap, as if the background was separating from the mask-like shapes that occupy the canvas. They emerge and recede; there is relentless, constant movement entrapped within this painting. From time to time Bruneau becomes a storyteller, her canvas a page on which to paint a tale, as is the case with Le grand pianiste that at first glance resembles a child's drawing. Birds are cascading from the sky, others lift off from a shadowy corner, while a long-armed pianist plays with wild abandon, head thrown back in ecstasy. A giant shape sits atop the piano, composed of a tangle of colourful gestures, tiny ears pointing to a feline. The whole composition undulates, the colours and shapes in perfect unison, the narrative but a link between the many layers. Picasso once avowed: It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child; ditto for Kittie Bruneau.

C’est avec l’exubérance d’un enfant et l’intelligence d’un sage que Kittie Bruneau aborde son « métier ». Elle puise dans un registre de symboles, un assortiment personnel de notations visuelles sous forme de poissons, d’oiseaux, de bateaux, mais aussi de visages et de masques. Elle oscille ainsi entre réalité et fantaisie, monde intérieur et extérieur, tout en demeurant fidèle à son lexique visuel. On fait souvent référence aux points communs qu’elle partage avec des artistes comme Picasso, Antonio Saura ou Mimmo Paladino, à leur imagerie puissante et à leurs œuvres vigoureuses, libres de toute contrainte.

Ses peintures tendent vers le grand format, car ce genre d’énergie reste difficile à canaliser, et le fait qu’elle l’exprime avec autant d’aisance est tout à son honneur. L’amorce d’un tableau la fait entrer dans une danse. Elle virevolte littéralement autour de ses toiles, les pose au sol et les contourne lors du processus créatif. Les œuvres de Kittie Bruneau s’inscrivent souvent en résonance avec celles de peintres comme Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky ou Joan Miró, car son style rappelle le mouvement artistique CoBrA, caractérisé par un style inspiré de représentations primitives ou enfantines. Nonobstant ces influences, Bruneau insuffle dans ses tableaux un style résolument personnel, et toute comparaison ponctuelle atteint vite ses limites. Son esthétique n’appartient qu’à elle, ses compositions et ses formes traduisent sa vision intérieure et sa compulsion créative. Elles racontent finalement l’histoire de sa propre expérimentation artistique. Chacune de ces toiles peut alors être considérée comme un chapitre, une note dans un journal visuel continu.