Artist Bio
Ailene Vrana MacDougall is a Toronto-born mixed-media abstract artist currently based in Innisfil, Ontario, Canada. Her work is deeply influenced by travel, urban environments, and the emotional imprint that place leaves behind. Drawing from a background that blends creativity, structure, and lived experience, Ailene creates vibrant, layered compositions that invite viewers to feel movement, memory, and joy.
Before fully embracing her life as an artist, Ailene spent decades in a corporate career that demanded precision, logic, and strategy. That contrast now fuels her creative practice, where spontaneity and intuition take the lead. Her work often reflects this balance — structured compositions softened by expressive mark-making, textured surfaces, and rich, analogous colour palettes.
Travel is central to Ailene’s process. Rather than documenting places literally, she captures fragments — photographs of walls, tiles, cobblestones, signage, architectural details, and fleeting street moments. These collected images become collage elements embedded within painted layers, transforming real locations into abstracted emotional landscapes.
Her Lisbon Series is inspired by the city’s warmth, history, and visual rhythm — sun-washed facades, intricate tilework, narrow streets, and the layered passage of time. Through mixed media, she distills the spirit of the city into vibrant compositions that evoke nostalgia, movement, and connection rather than representation.
Ailene’s work has been exhibited in juried shows and galleries in Canada and the United States. She describes her practice as creating vibrant art for the vibrant soul — art that uplifts, energizes, and invites viewers to reconnect with their own experiences of place, travel, and memory.