Debralee Bertrand profile

Debralee Bertrand was born in Ithaca, NY, 50+ years ago and grew up in the Syracuse NY area. She is married to an attorney/ judge, and has two daughters and three grandchildren.As a young girl Debbie was just in love with Paris. All she ever wanted to do was go to Paris. She still doesn't know why she always had this desire, but thinks the movie "GiGi" might have had something to do with it.As a child she was a bit of an artist. She took classes at the Everson Museum of Art and one of her acrylic paintings went on a US tour! (She was 12 yrs old at the time.) Debbie did a lot of sketching and charcoals. But as a young adult, she never seemed to want to make time for her art. And then she was busy being a Mom…who had the time? But she always felt frustrated and that something in her life was missing.In 1989 Debralee and her husband visited Paris for the first time, and she was hooked. It was more than she could have hoped for. Debbie quickly decided that she was indeed a Francophile. Shortly thereafter, Debbie became involved with The LEC French Exchange program (based in Paris), which gives French students the opportunity to live the "American way of life" with an American family. Through this program, she's made so many friends in France.About ten years ago Debralee decided to make the time for her art. She joined an art guild, took some workshops and started attending classes. It took a long time for her to "find her medium". She tried her hand at oils, acrylics, watercolors, and colored pencils. And then one day in the spring of 2000, at a portrait drawing class, an artist colleague lent her some pastels. That was IT !! She fell in love with pastels immediately. The next day she bought a complete set of Rembrandts. Debbie's first pastel painting won a few awards locally, and it hangs in her living room over the fireplace. It's of a flower market in France.Since their first Paris visit, Debbie and her husband have been to the Loire Valley, Dordogne, Brittany, Normandy, Provence, Massif Central, Languedoc, the Alps and most places in between as they do a lot of driving. And of course Debbie visits Paris as often as she can. She paints on location whenever possible and her camera act as a sketchbook for studio paintings. She has also taken part in some "painting holidays" in France, where a group of artists live and paint together under the guide of an art instructor.Debralee's art has won many awards and has been accepted into many juried shows and competitions. She has completed two pastel series: "The Gardens of Paris" and "The Flower Markets of France" (12 pieces in each series). She is presently working on a new series "The Streets of Paris".