huiles 2006
huiles 2005
aquarelles 2005
dessins, encres 2005
quelques explications...
You will find on the site of the newspaper "l'Express", a French interview of Mr. Pastoureau about the blue color.
This book that I found attractive, tells the blue color from the historical point of view. This reading gave me desire for painting in blue and as I had just made drawings of gothic statues,
I decided to paint these gothic statues in blue
Here painting obtained :
Here painting obtained :
This painting gave me desire for looking further into the subject and I let the idea make his way in my head.
I thought that these statues which had to me was used as model, came from a gate of Chartres. This Gothic cathedral always fascinated me. I went to see it. Failing to find these models, this visit enabled me to (re)discover the sculptures-columns of Chartres. I took photographs : there was suffisament matter to work during a long moment !
Since the beginning of this work, as tables take form, I document myself on the characters, on the Cathedral of Chartres. I also took again the reading of the book of Mr. Pastoureau.
I am not very at ease with the color. The coloured harmonies that I obtained to date really do not like me with some exceptions. This is why, the idea to paint with only one dominant color immediately allured me. To start with the blue which is a color that I like, seemed to me natural. Today, I have really the feeling to have chosen (without really y to have reflects!) the good color: that which characterizes at the same time Chartre and a form of spirituality. To argue my remarks, I will be satisfied to quote some sentences of Mr. Pastoureau :
" A long time, blue was badly liked... And then, suddenly, any exchange. XIIe and XIIIe centuries will rehabilitate and promote blue...
There is not at this time of particular progress in the manufacture of the dyes or the pigments. What occurs, be a major change of the religious ideas. God of the Christians becomes indeed a god of light. And the light is... blue! For the first time in Occident, one paints the ciels in blue... the Virgin lives the sky... In the images, starting from XIIe century, one thus covers it coat or of a dress blue. The Virgin becomes the principal agent of promotion of blue...
About 1140, when the Suger abbot makes rebuild the abbey church of Saint-Denis, he wants to put everywhere colors to dissipate darkness, and in particular blue. One will use for the stained glasses an extremely expensive product, the kaffir (which one will call much later the blue of cobalt). From Saint-Denis this blue will be diffused in Mans, then in Vendôme and Chartres, where it will become the famous blue of Chartres... blue, divinized, spread itself not only in the stained glasses and the works of art, but also in all the company..."
I encountered certain difficulties of making portraits in blue: this color easily gives an air tormented to the characters. Picasso had not been mistaken there during its blue time. However, I will prefered that my characters reveal serene and positive emotions.
I test a great admiration for these statues and I pay great attention never not to miss a respect with respect to these works but I copy and that I interpret.
I generally work each statue separately in several drawings. Then I hang them to the wall and I position them together when I "feel" that they have something to be said.
In a certain way, I like enough the "fixed" appearance of these statues and their verticality. I can imagine them moving and light. This work is also a good pretext being studied of the portrait. When a trio is formed, I pass to painting. It sometimes happens to me to change positions of hands, to invert head and clothing...
I do not seek exactitude when I copy these statues.
On the contrary. I want to invent another life to them.
Anne Bironneau