Anne-Sophie Fontenelle

C o l o r f u l  a t t r a c t i o n 

Painting is a vital need. I paint as I breathe and it feels in my work. I totally surrender to it... I bring an uninhibited look at what I see and feel and I do not hesitate to express myself freely with strength and interiority. My inspirations can come from personal photographic images. I modify them, transform them until I find the essence. My painting can have a marked gesture or calmer, lighter, more blurred.
The colors are quite bright. My palette varies according to my sources of visual inspiration and my moods. I paint in oil on linen canvas. I love the fluidity of the oil and its material, its lively and uncertain side. Seeing my paintings, we imagine fragments of landscape, signs, animal forms, organic. I also make portraits, of my son, in particular. I've always been fascinated by faces. It brings me back to myself, to my human condition, to my intimacy. I can synthesize the forms down to the essentials. I position myself on the creative process: What should I keep or let go? When should I stop? I rework several times and I can intervene on paintings even if it means 'losing' them. It is not really a loss but a transformation, a hidden presence... What is below participates in the painting. Each step is important as well as each layer. Painting brings me a lot internally and allows me to surpass myself, to discover myself, to assert myself. I expose myself, I lay myself bare. I seek an authenticity in my work, a quest for the true, the very nature of painting.

Anne-Sophie Fontenelle, 2022