Diamonds of Africa (3/3) Painting

The Immortality of the Feminine Soul: The Paintings of Christine Bleny Christine Marie- Paul Bleny, aka Christine Bleny, is a doubly-blessed painter: born with an unlimited imagination into an artistic family in the cultural crossroads city of Strasbourg. Strasbourg is home to many famous artists including wood engraver, painter and illustrator to Lord Byron’s works, Gustave Doré and still-life master, Sebastian Stoskopff. Strasbourg also gave the world its most renowned wax sculptor, Anne Marie Tussaud as in Madame Tussauds Wax Museums. Christine was immersed in art from an early age: her mother, Germaine Marie Bleny painted reproduction of Rembrandt, Courbet and Renoir masterpieces using colour pencils on wood with her unique technic , while her equally creative father, Gerard Paul Bleny, was a master woodworker. Christine first painted from the age of 10 and has been so doing ever since. Christine Bleny’s oil paintings celebrate landscapes, mystical women travelling through timeless forests and surrealism, the ‘The Divine Ladies’ series has received the most critical acclaim, “I like to merge both the material and immaterial with my series of women in the forest... Forests have always symbolised a place of high spirituality, an aspect of immortality of the feminine soul.” Christine’s work has been exhibited in New York’s Pavillion d’art contemporain; London’s Waldorf Hotel; Milan’s Nuova Porte Prandi and at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris. Comparisons have been made to Klimt, Dali, Delveaux and oftentimes with the elegance of Jacoulet. Christine Bleny works from her studio is in East Grinstead on the edge of the Ashdown Forest with its ever-changing hues, “When people ask me how come you paint so much? I say I am an artist and this is what I do.”