Anne-Sophie Fontenelle

T h e  b o d y  a s  l a n d s c a p e 

I explore my body, my skin, in an intimate relationship to the elements. These paintings are the fruit of these explorations, research on my feelings, on my carnal envelope. The body is perceived as a landscape, imbued with emotions, sensations. This distance allows me to make the invisible visible. 
I have a sensual and emotional approach to painting, both for portraits, landscapes and paintings closer to abstraction.

I use oil painting on linen canvas. Oil painting gives me what I am looking for in terms of material, a very specific finesse, transparency and vibration.

I am inspired by the photos I make myself. With a digital camera. I zoom in on well-defined elements.

In this series, "The body as landscape", I use what I learned during my master's degree, this detachment from the image, this reappropriation of it into something completely personal. 

These body fragments are perceived as landscape elements. 
Emotional landscapes where intimacy and the universal come together. Going further, we could perceive this research as a questioning of our place as humans in this world. 

I like to compare the human body to the natural elements. What if the skin became sand, earth? What if the body turned into a watery whirlpool, the skin into water vapor?

Anne-Sophie Fontenelle 2022-2023