Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Painting

Catherine JOYEUX Versailles… the paintbrush and the quill pen Versailles… The mill of the Queen… Everything happened there! A small canvas painted with flames! Catherine Joyeux dedicates it to her uncle… On the way back: an ice cream merchant and… an American! He saw the small canvas placed for a moment on the counter. He liked it. Done deal! And the uncle in all this? The next day, Catherine goes back to the mill. The calm, the majestic trees, the light of the moment, the omnipresence of the past, the time rediscovered, the impression that the entire park belongs to her! An indescribable emotion! The encounter of a soul and a place! Catherine is fifteen years old. Her teachers predict a scientific career, a contradiction to her nascent vocation. Her determination only increases: she shall be a painter! Nicolas Carréga, her ally, encourages her. Catherine Joyeux remembers the paintings of her master, similar to Soulages of the 70’s: power of the blues, browns and blacks, large brushstrokes. Rigorous and meditative compositions. At the Schoold of Applied Arts of Sèvres, Catherine chooses the atelier of mural decor and low-hanging tapestry. The ancestral art lives a renaissance. Many artists weave their works. Isn’t thread a colorful stroke, smooth and fluid, all in motion? At the Atelier Saint-Cyr, alongside Pierre Daquin, then at Atelier 3 alongside Peter Schonwald and Frédérique Bachellerie, Catherine becomes a painter’s interpreter: Brachet, Huguette Arthus-Bertrand, Andrée Vilar, Cathelin, Jansem, Sartou, Carrega, Bardone, Olivier Brice and his astonishing lanterns magnified by playful drapes. At Christian Dior, Avenue Montaigne, she “approaches luxury”: perfection, demand, character. Everything beauty requires. She enthusiastically participates in the creation of decors for the Spring / Summer, Fall / Winter collections and marvels at “making Beauty with so little”: cardboard, glue, material effects, ideas and talent! The joys of watercolor At the same time, Catherine Joyeux finds a passion for watercolor: tempera, water, paper soaked with colors, transparency, evanescence… Adventure always hides surprises! The gallery Terre des Arts notices her in Paris, and exhibits her in France and abroad. Her watercolor works is disseminated all the way to Japan! Within twenty-five years, bonds of trust and friendship are formed.