Soulboard : a winter dream landscape painting and collage with birds Collage

I was born in 1962. I'm a professional artist, based in France.in the Loire Valley. I live and work in Vouvray, (land of good white wines, sparkling or still, dry or sweet) in Touraine, in a very pretty troglodyte dwelling, typical of the Loire Valley. I studied Fine Arts at the Institute of Visual Arts in Orleans where I entered with a file of floral illustrations for fabrics and an experimental feature film in video. Finally, I studied printmaking, experimental cinema, and photography. But what I liked best, in cinema, was drawing storyboards! I obtained High School Art Diploma (DNSEP, equivalent to a Master's degree) in 1989. As I student in Fine Arts, I started studying lyrical singing at the Orléans Conservatory, right next to the IAV. I had studied solfège and piano as a child, which made it easier for me to resume my musical studies later on! I spent some time in harmony and composition classes, but I soon realised that music as a composer would not be my means of expression. In 1991, on the advice of my singing teacher, I had an audition at the Tours Opera House, and I was hired in the Professional Choir where I still sing! I am a gourmand of pictorial techniques and subjects. Everything is likely to interest me one day. The human figure, landscapes, seascapes, forests, and now, flowers. Schematically, to sum up, after having done very dark and serious works in my youth, the more I advance in life, the more I find myself with a pronounced taste for beauty, colour and life! I love to explore painting techniques. It is for me an endless journey, filled with the happiness of accomplishment, the enjoyment of inventiveness, creativity! I couldn't live without creating. Creation is my vital engine, the source of my energy. Giving matter to, giving birth to, making with my hands, imagining, letting my eyes dream. Creating … In my second profession, as a lyrical singer, I am an interpreter of music, scores, composers. I am one of the tools of conductors (like soloists, instrumentalists, all choristers). Whereas in my job as a painter and drawer, I am a CREATOR. But my lyrical singer job balances me and brings me the pleasure of being on stage, in performance, in front of spectators, singing and dancing as part of a team, doing sensitive and artistic collective work. On the other hand, the fine arts, for me, can only be practiced in the solitude of the studio.