Martine Gourbault was born in Paris and received her art education at
Central Technical School of Art in Toronto. She has also attended a number of additional classes and workshops: In the UK, at the Camden School of Art (London) and Lydgate Art Research Centre (Wiltshire) and in Vancouver at the Art Academy.

Her career has taken her through magazine design and illustration in Toronto, as well as the illustration of 14 children's books for publishers in the US, the UK and Canada. She has lived in Toronto, New York and London and moved to Vancouver, where she now resides, in 1997.

Martine began focusing more on her personal work in the late 80's, and has since explored a variety of media and techniques, working primarily in series. She has exhibited in galleries in the UK, Vancouver, Banff and Tsawwassen and her paintings have been purchased by private and corporate clients from Canada, the US, the UK and Europe.  
Martine is an SFCA member of the Federation of Canadian Artists where she has earned a number of awards in juried shows.

In her most recent work, Martine explores her more quirky and fanciful side, creating imaginary landscapes and scenes, inspired by her observations and musings on the intricacies of relationships and the small ironies of life.
“Though I have worked fairly extensively in oils and acrylics, I have had a long standing love affair with drawing from early days and to this day find playing with pencils and crayons most pleasurable and satisfying. I love witnessing the birth of a new image, scribbled loosely on a piece of paper, when it appears at its most immediate, expressive and full of promise. The inevitable business of decision making comes only too soon and too often breaks that spell”.