onique Hagood was born in le Plessis
Robinson, a suburb of Paris, and grew
up under the strong artistic influence
of her aunt and uncle, Marguerite and
Roger Fournials, both, well-known painters
in France.
   Her formal training was in New York at the Art Students League under Robert Brackman, Daniel Greene, Ray Goodbred, and Richard Goetz. “I am especially grateful to Brackman for the basics, and for helping me develop an appreciation for colors and tones and to Goodbred who not only gave me a solid understanding of values and structure, but instilled in me the invaluable knowledge that a ‘pretty picture’ does not necessarily make a good painting or a work of art.
   “My main goal when painting is to create atmosphere – to try to make a person feel what I feel when I’m there, in the environment” – which accounts for the common reaction of so many people who view her work and say, “I feel I could walk into that painting.”
   Hagood is known for her special ability to capture, through subtle use of rich color and tone, the ambiance of whatever she paints, whether it’s misty mornings on various canals and rivers, sunlit landscapes, or partly-shaded flower gardens.
   In Artspeak, John Bridge said of her work, “She recreates in her painting a saturated and dramatic mood…In her still lifes, the compositions and colors evoke still lifes of masters of the 18th century, with tones darkened by time. Her landscapes…romantic. A native of France, Monique Hagood understands how to render the serene and splendid mood of the banks of the Loire...Her paintings sing of the love of nature.”
   The artist has presented four one-woman shows at the National Arts Club in New York City where she is an Exhibiting Artist Member. She has participated in numerous group shows including the Cercle Artistique Français in New York, and is a Life Member of the Art Students League.
   The Grand Hyatt Hotel in Greenwich, Connecticut, selected reproductions of four of her paintings to decorate all 300 of their renovated rooms. And the Royce Investment Group chose five of her paintings for their headquarters in Woodbury, Long Island.
   In an Annual Exhibition of Exhibiting Artist Members at the National Arts Club, her painting, “A Bench at Giverny,” won the Grumbacher Gold Medallion.
   Her shows are always a resounding success and her paintings are in numerous private collections in the United States, France, and Japan.