The Loto-Québec Collection team selected four artists to create a work related to the theme of “blue.” This project accompanies the exhibition Voir bleu, which aims to celebrate 45 years of involvement in Quebec’s artistic and cultural scene. The initial idea was to bring together artists whose works are part of the Collection, in this case Judith Berry and Rafael Sottolichio, as well as two emerging artists, Berirouche Feddal and Wendy-Alexina Vancol.

A risky gamble for Loto-Québec, of course, we brought together four artists who didn’t know each other, each with a rather different approach and style. We briefly brainstormed with them; there was no guiding principle or curatorship per se, only that the work would be all blue and created using a scratch-off technique, a nod to scratch-off lottery tickets.

The project itself was in development when we approached the artists. A first version of the medium was tested by the artists on a sample, it was a mixture of gouache-based paint to which a binder was added so that it would be easily scraped. Once the recipe was adjusted, we applied the paint to a sheet of acrylic measuring 57” H x 33” W (4.7′ H x 2.7′ W). The back of the acrylic was painted a paler blue, so that once the dark part was scraped off, there would be a color contrast.

We gathered the artists in a studio rented specifically for the duration of the project and, in 5 days, they created Self-portraits in Blue. The creative process was a bit like a marathon, from morning until evening, not to mention the presence of cameras at certain moments, the entire project being also the subject of a major publicity campaign. The work was presented in public from September 16, 2024 at Place-des-arts, until Sunday, September 29, 2024.