Provost’s painting, described by some as lyrical abstraction, has evolved in a series of works exploring specific formalist concerns.

Drawing, for him a gestural manifestation of the subconscious, plays a decisive role in the composition of his canvases. Provost says that since 2007 he has been exploring pictorial space in his work, in a process of constant refinement.

“My approach to both drawing and painting goes far beyond straightforward execution. The drawings, in India ink, graphite, and red chalk, are produced in a stream of consciousness and are then cut out. Paradoxically, they become the embryo of a work that is constructed using a highly studied and rational approach that follows the logic of my investigation of space and its simplification. My work is mainly based on the study of composition in terms of line, depth, relationships between masses, gestures, and trompe-l’oeil,” Jean-François Provost.

Provost basically defines himself as a Plasticien.

Jean-François Provost lives in Gatineau Quebec. A number of collections include works by Provost, notably the collections of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the Musée des beaux-arts de Mont Saint-Hilaire, Provigo, the City of Ottawa, the City of Gatineau, as well as many corporate and private collections in the United States, England, Belgium and Austria.