Meet the 17-year-old Quebec painter taking her work international

As a child taking art classes, Mégane Fortin felt constrained by some traditional principles of painting.

So, she decided to completely ignore them.

"I didn't like that we have rules … All people did the same thing," said Fortin, with a chuckle, standing in front of a dozen of her paintings displayed at a local Quebec City café.

The 17-year-old abstract artist from Stoneham, Que., has now been painting outside the lines for the past 10 years.

She says her creativity soared when her mom first signed her up for an abstract painting course when she was seven.

"It's liberating … Art is like therapy," said Fortin, who presented her first collection at nine years old.

Since then, she's painted pieces that have sold for thousands of dollars across Quebec, Canada and internationally.

"I'm so happy to have [found] my passion. And for some [other] teenagers it will be sports, it will be music, but it's more rare to be an artist [so] young," she said. 

Fortin has showcased her work in New York and Los Angeles and was recently invited to her first event in Miami in December — Spectrum Miami.

1 of 190 exhibitors in Miami

Eric Smith, the owner of Spectrum Miami, Red Dot Miami and the Redwood Art Group, says the exhibition overlaps with the Art Basel festival in Miami.

With 15 fairs over the course of a few days, Smith says Miami's art week is "probably the world's biggest art fair when you take [in] all the people that fly in and visit."

Spectrum itself invites about 190 exhibitors but receives close to 700 applications, Smith estimates. 

"There are artists that make their whole year by exhibiting at our event, and they'll sell anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000 worth of art," he said.

He says many art fairs involve collectors or gallery art dealers but don't necessarily highlight artists.

But at Spectrum, 15 artists get the opportunity to paint live in front of an audience and talk about their approach — with Fortin being one of the artists selected for the event.

'She really had to create every day,' says mom

Fortin's mother, Jessie Tremblay, says she started to notice her daughter's talent in kindergarten.

"Even at the age of five, she really had to create every day," she said.

"She didn't necessarily go play with her friends because she preferred to create instead."

Working part time to support her daughter's passion, she says she and Fortin's dad have co-ordinated all the behind-the-scenes work and the shipping of her artwork.

"It's a real privilege," she said.

Holding up a pair of jeans caked with dried paint, Fortin says she almost always wears the same clothes and often paints with her hands to feel more connected with her art.

"Some people say that I'm an atypical artist," said Fortin.

"I don't want to wash all my knives and my brush, so I always put them on my clothes."

She now has her sights set on Europe and possibly becoming a resident artist abroad. She also hopes to return to Miami art week for years to come.

"It will prove my credibility even if I'm younger than other artists," said Fortin.