Fundamentally, there are 2 elements that drive my passion for painting: I have an absolute love for color and an obsession with what I call figurative abstraction--abstract work that retains a couple "recognizable" features to anchor the piece.

I grew up in a family of artists and sculptors in the South West of France in a region famous for attracting cubist artists in the 50s.  Their visions have unwittingly seeped into my artistic practice.  My landscapes, imagined and re-imagined, play with perspective by flattening depth and distorting forms to abolish and yet suggest distance at the same time.  They impart a sense of movement and invite contemplation from multiple angles.  They merge interior and exterior into an atmosphere of time suspended by lending substance and form to the layers of memory that deposits in our minds, just as sediments shape the limestone cliffs of the Valley of the Dordogne River where I spent my childhood.  

I view each piece as a puzzle of the mind that keeps me enraptured in the moment, the duration of the painting.  I like to use unconventional tools other than a traditional brush and knife, and work from an additive and subtractive approach.  I incorporate crushed, powdered and natural pigments which are infused into the oil and applied to the canvas in a freely expressive manner.  What interests me primarily is the whimsical and poetic recomposition of each place that I have loved.  My creative process often takes surprising turns and is energized by textures and gradation of colors.   

Gallery representation: Three Stones Gallery in Concord, MA, The Woodstock Gallery, VT, and Styylish a virtual marketplace for original European Antique Furniture and Contemporary Designer Pieces.

Cécile Ganne holds a Ph.D. from B.U., Licences de Lettres and Art History from La Sorbonne and Toulouse le Mirail, France.  When not creating, she teaches French at Wellesley College