Maeva Esteva was born in France and moved to the island of Huahine in French Polynesia at the age of 9. There she grew up in both French and Polynesian cultures and built a connection with both the natural world and human nature. With the Polynesian culture she developed her own personal style of art that evolved through the years. Her adopted culture still a big part of her as well as the Tahitian dance that she still practices and teach.

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She returns to France to study and graduated her master’s degree on sciences and adapted physical activities, specializes on obesity problem. She worked a little back in Polynesia as a sport teacher, living on her sailboat, but she finally left for traveling and moved to the Yukon 14 years ago, looking for more wilderness and cold weather. She lives a simple life in an off-grid cabin she built on Kwanlin Dün and Ta'an Kwäch’än land where she can be surrounded by trees and wildlife of the northern boreal forests. She spends most of her time out on the land, hiking, canoeing, snow shoeing, any way that get her out and close to the nature.

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She started photography and drawing to be able to share her strong connection with nature with the world. As human beings get away from their natural environment and slowly forget what we are all a part of. She has made it her purpose to make people remember this connection through her art and show them that the wilderness is still there, it is all in how you look at it and, in the respect, you give back to it.

She still travels between the sea and the mountain occasionally to remember her connection with the sea. She sailed to Greenland in 2019 as part of crew member on a sailboat and they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with her parents and brother in 2022. She also sailed several time into the northwest passage from Greenland to Kugluktuk, working on a boat. She like the Sea as it is like being in the middle of the bush, there is no hide out, no way to run so you must face yourself and face the unpredictable Nature.

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​            She likes to work with pastels on black paper, but she also works more and more with watercolours. She mixes hyper realistic animal portraits with movement and a touch of dreams and innocence. She believes there is a lack of poetry in the new world and that people should keep dreaming and remind their self how the heart could speak better than the mouth. She like working with water as it is one natural element indispensable for life and it is always a challenge as water is unpredictable like nature, you can’t control everything, you can’t run against time, you can only accept the unknown and play with it.

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            The artist also has been involved in different work for women rights in some collective exhibitions, working on the side on her personal project for years in her spare time before this exhibition could finally happen. She also created and ran two business, Maeva Esteva Art, where she sells her art and teaches it, and her wild food business where she harvests, dries and sells wild mushrooms from the Yukon and BC forest. She is also a guide specialized in remote area in the Yukon and the arctic.

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Maeva Esteva art give every year to different association to give back to both the community and nature, starting this year 2025 she decided to give 15% of her final benefice to association for protection and conservation of nature. The main one will be Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative , they use sciences and Indigenous knowledge to identify and protect core habitat in this awe-inspiring landscape.

https://y2y.net/

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She will also keep giving to any association she can, giving her art for donation/auction, such as:

- Ayalik Fund. The association gives Inuit youth who would otherwise not have such opportunities a chance to build self-esteem and confidence through challenging outdoor adventure, meeting other young Canadians, and social-cultural exploration. https://www.ayalikfund.ca/

- Autism Yukon. Through advocacy, support, education and collaboration, Autism Yukon is committed to fostering an understanding and inclusive community for autistic and other neurodiverse individuals.

- women's association during her exhibition 'All Women'.