“Enter the light after having learned the shadow by heart”. This phrase from the painter Léonard Valette resonates with me. 

I like chiaroscuro, contrasts, texture, strength, vitality. The materials fascinate me. It’s not the subject that matters to me but the emotion that will come out while watching it. I need to touch, to feel, to become one with my material to feel complete. I ignore concepts: I listen to the canvas, the metal, and I let myself be guided. I tame the work little by little as it emerges. It is often a “struggle”, which I like, not made of aggression but of strength, perseverance and tenacity. Even when I paint, I feel this struggle.

During a trip to Asia in 2011, where I left with just pens, thread and a piece of canvas, I discovered and let out a new part of me; softness, lightness, femininity, no more struggle! Was it due to the “zen” countries? that I was crossing,  to  the kindness of people? Or was it just time for me to let these traits out? When I returned I no longer painted, but drew on the canvas in order to explore this new path.

At the same time, I started to do a lot of mountain climbing: walking, climbing, mountaineering... I realized that my “struggle” had resumed but on another playing field: a dirt or mountain terrain. snow, dizziness and rock. Today, I am starting to paint again, with a different conscience. My struggle seems gentler to me, perhaps the passion for the mountains has transformed it?
It nourishes me and brings me new energy for the creation which is vital to me.