Figurations

I work without a model but my in depth study of the nude, at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, enables me to play freely with lines and compositions. Lines sometimes disappear completely to leave only those that suggest the gesture, the interrupted step, the instant when time paused before moving on. My women, young or less young, surrender the emotion of an instant, a moment of pause, a moment of self contemplation.

I choose to present them on “bands” that structure the painting and give a new dimension, a different impression, subjective to the viewer’s appreciation. Some will see a confinement; as for me, I create them because they offer me the space of a life elsewhere, another opening, a door, a flow of light; a world of peace and sereneness that soothes me.
The representation of these moments of peace and serenity are also suggested by the overall light tones of pearl grey and ivory. I like the softness of these colours as they give my figures both a great presence and the diaphanous aspect of timelessness.

Waiting, solitude, thought and even a form of melancholy shroud the soul of my characters. It is the translation of that interior world that fascinates me; to merely suggest the instant before the emotion, the expression of the fleeing emotion. It is that dimension I seek and want to find again in each of my paintings. Silence is their intimate component.
Composition is also an essential element. It accompanies the character in her voyage, places her and frames her. It creates the space and the atmosphere. It is what enables me, along the page-setting, to come the closest to the impression I want to give to this character that settles her self and halts under my paint brush. It is a genuine moment of intense concentration as the character imposes her self.
Since forever, characters have been one of my favourite subjects though they cause me many worries… Often untameable and untamed, I release her, in search for easier themes. Yet, very soon, she imposes herself again, she comes back and won’t let go, timeless under my brush strokes.
My characters have always succeeded in keeping a shroud of mystery, as we all do, which brings me back to them. They are fascinating. They question me while soothing me.
My preoccupation is to show, through them, by the sobriety of the composition and the restrained use of colours, the narrow edge between the strength and fragility of the human being.

Square canvas

The square is very close to the circle, its makes me feel good. It offers innumerable composition possibilities and I do not get lost in it.  I find the square beautiful and reassuring.
My mean of expression is oil paint on stretched linen canvas. I like to take my time, to paint, and touch up over and over with my brushes, to take advantage of drying times between each séance to finally set on the canvas the colours and luminosity that brings its best out and lends it its poetic dimension.

Pastels

My series of dry pastels demonstrate an entirely different aspect by their vivacious colours and the variety of the compositions yet, they also keep this strength connected with the feeling of an interrupted moment from which emanates waiting, solitude, silence and melancholy.

Compositions

From my most abstract compositions, painted with oils in somber and deep colours, emerge always a great sobriety and a certain melancholy. Out of these great flats spring rays of light that reflect the force and mystery of our lives.