Dynamic Journey to Stillness
Water and landscape are where Annie Lalonde keeps returning—not as scenery, but as forces bigger than us.
Her experience as a river guide, navigating rapids and whitewater, taught her something she continues to explore on canvas: why we are drawn to risk, what happens when control disappears, and what it means to surrender to something stronger than ourselves.
In challenging natural environments, navigation becomes a constant negotiation. We read the current, choose a direction, respond to what changes, and sometimes reach a point where control gives way to something else. Time and place can feel altered. Attention sharpens. We cross a threshold and become more fully present.
For Lalonde, surrender is not a loss of control but a form of participation—a willingness to let nature shape what happens. The experience becomes a kind of co-creation between human intention and forces beyond us. This relationship finds its way into her paintings through loose, figurative forms, fluid paint, splatters, and spontaneous marks that echo the energy and unpredictability of water. She leaves space for the viewer to find their own way into the work.
Her time in Japan also shaped this way of thinking. While living there for nearly three years, Lalonde studied Kyudo, Japanese archery, where disciplined preparation leads to a moment of release. The balance between control and letting go has stayed with her.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Humanistic Studies at McGill University, Lalonde travelled extensively through South Asia following her time in Japan. She now lives and works in Montreal and continues to seek out remote places and experiences that shape the way she sees and, ultimately, her work.
