BIO

Born in the medieval French city of Carcassonne, I spent my childhood in the lush Dordogne Valley in southwest France. My earliest and most vivid childhood memories are of walks through woods and fields with my family. Both artists, my grandparents taught me how to see and capture the fleeting coolness of nature’s small quirky moments: a light or a juxtaposition of unexpected textures. They instilled in me this awe of nature’s vibrancy. These seminal experiences trained my eye to capture the warm chaos, the harmonies, gradation, emotions that move us through natural spaces, depths and colors. 

Each landscape, sometimes imagined, re-imagined, or even dreamed, is a window of experimentation to capture and investigate a fleeting memory of a place, or a sense of belonging. I am interested in giving physical shape to the layers of memory that deposit in our mind similarly to the sediments that shape geological landscapes.

Each landscape is a window of experimentation with different materials, shapes, colors, and textures. I enjoy building layers upon layers and sometimes scratching them all together to let the raw quality of the canvas surface. While oil paint is my primary medium because of its luxurious texture, I also happily incorporate other media in my work e.g. pastels, pencils, linseed oil, walnut oil, and cold wax. 

Painting is an opportunity to work through a mental puzzle that I visualize at the center of each composition. Each work is the result of an organic process that takes its roots in a personal exploration of the limitations of a certain medium, shape, light and color. Paradoxically, I find limitations and restrictions in my work incredibly empowering in pushing the boundaries of my art.    The structures at the core of my paintings resemble “earthly corals,” grounded like trees, but fluid like seaweeds. One of my teachers likened my work to that of the later Cézanne and described my modern landscapes as “poetic organic architecture.”

Reorganizing space, mixing colors as well as the physicality of applying paint are my way of practicing mindfulness.  Approaching this state of lightness allows me to create timeless compositions that will bring serenity to art collectors.  

Cézanne, Paul Cérusier, Braque, Nicolas de Stael, Ansel Kiefer, Georgia O'Keefe, Peter Doig, Pierre Bonnard, Macke,Joseph Alpers, André Derain, Wolf Kahn, David Hockney,  Maurice de Vlaminck,   Elaine de Kooning, Miró , Alma Woodsey Thomas, Viktor Klemperer, Viktor Frankl.