"What I learned from the automatists was not so much a conception of painting, nor theories, but rather a personal demand in relation to the work to be done. Why do colors, shapes, and materials matter more to me than words, sounds, or numbers? In the end, that doesn't matter much. What matters is feeling at ease in front of a blank canvas, enjoying spreading colors on it; this joy of painting compensates for the anxiety inherent in the unknown that I have to face."

- Lise Gervais, excerpt from the article by Robillard, Y. (1966). *Montre?al, aujourd’hui*. *Vie des arts*, (44), 49–93.

Closer to the group of Borduas and Riopelle than to the Plasticiens, Lise Gervais's works were quickly associated with the works of Marcelle Ferron or Jean-Paul Riopelle. She won the Dow Jones Prize in 1961 at the Salon du Printemps at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, even though she was unknown to art critics just a few months prior. She was considered the rising star of modern painting in Quebec.

The works of the 1960s are often described as a burst or even a pictorial blossoming. The artist contrasts vivid, saturated colors with large expanses and a predominance of white space on the surface.

She applies the colors in a measured and calculated manner. The geometric impasto is reminiscent of the works of master Paul-Émile Borduas. In 1964, art critic Dorothy Pfeiffer described Lise Gervais's works as follows: *"Everything moves, flies, rises, or flaps its wings loudly in Gervais’s paintings. But nothing—absolutely nothing—floats. In fact, the dominant note in her technique is 'power,' a power that is both authoritarian and invigorating."*

In 1966, Gilles Héneault wrote admiring remarks about Gervais’s work. In *Vie des Arts*, he said: *"The radiance of each painting springs from the arrangement of signs, their unique graphic nature, their dynamism, and sometimes the violent opposition of their colorations. Lise Gervais uses accidents only with premeditation. Her gesture is decisive, her plastic writing is precise, and if she manipulates the material, it is to impose on it an organization that responds to an inner necessity, a necessity that has, moreover, absolutely nothing mechanical about it."*

Here, in the work titled Manifest (1969), Gervais presents a finished realization, recalling the paintings of Paul-Émile Borduas from ten years earlier. The color is strong, and the white is immaculate with structured spatula strokes. The compositional aspect of the piece is at the peak of her talent.