Artist Biography
Sophie Legault lives and works in Concord, Massachusetts. In her practice, she uses oil painting to explore the relationship between natural environments and her personal experiences within them. She also works with various materials, including acrylic, printmaking, drawing, and collage, to explore memory, experience, and the natural world.
Legault is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with a concentration in 2-D at Endicott College in Beverly, MA. She has participated in two student invitational exhibitions at Endicott College, where she received the Rising Star Award in 2024. Her work has also been included in Members Juried 1: Painting + Sculpture 2025 at Concord Art in Concord, MA, and in the Members Open Exhibition at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, MA, in 2025. Recently, her work has also featured in “Emerging Perspectives” at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck in Gloucester, MA.
She has completed internships at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill and in the art classroom at Glenn Urquhart School. She is currently completing her senior capstone project while engaging with the artistic community in her hometown. Outside the studio, Sophie enjoys nature walks and curling up with a good book alongside her two cats, Ti and Dunkin.
Capstone Abstract
This Capstone project investigates the relationship between nature, mental health, and artistic expression, with a focus on local environments. The research for this capstone explores how engagement with nature supports psychological well-being and has long served as a source of artistic inspiration. In addition, further literature on the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge provides a site-specific context for understanding these connections.
This art-based research includes a series of paintings. Visual references are drawn from photographs taken by myself or my family members, as well as images altered and combined in Photoshop, all grounded in personal experiences of the site. The resulting artwork highlights the emotional and reflective qualities of local landscapes and wildlife. The paintings reflect how memory and place shape individual perceptions of nature and its impact on well-being, as well as the role of personal narrative in artistic interpretation.
A future direction for this project is to expand the series to other locations that I also connect with mental well-being and inspiration.