Dragonfly Painting

The main source of inspiration for Christine Breuil comes from literature. The canvas becomes the immersive space where she can escape, where forms blur and where she encapsulates Nervalian poetry, the beauty of the dormant waters of Henri Bosco, or the evocative motifs of abandoned estates in the novel of Alain Fournier... Her work is by turns gestural, then precise: she layers blocks of color and collages of printed papers she has gleaned throughout her travels, which must have an essential emotional bond in order to be welcomed onto her canvases. She blurs and wipes, seeking the effect of transparency and layering. Inspired by the soak-stain technique of E. Frankenthaler, she combines inks with acrylic to give the painting the fluid and transparent consistency of watercolor. Working with graphite, colored pencils and oil pastels add graphical elements. If Christine had to cite two words to define what drives her art, they would be "beauty" and "nostalgia". For her beauty is precious, necessary and essential. Convinced that aesthetics play an undeniable social role in our life, she surrounds herself and pursues them steadfastly and asserts the use of clichés like flowers or dragonflies, affirming how great is the consensus of what we all find beautiful, as the study of designer Stefan Sagmeister demonstrated. Nostalgia is a part of her as well: a fertile and creative nostalgia which draws its enrichment from her roots, from nature and from the Masters, forming an inexhaustible source of renewal, a kind of limitless labor. This nostalgia is that of Christine‘s childhood in France, in Paris and in the wooded countryside of Île de France; that which made her love the naturalist plates of Maria Sibylla Merian and the motifs of William Morris, the impressions of Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell, the illustrations of her father, the aesthetics of the Nabis, the gentleness of Raphael or even the whimsical imagery of Odilon Redon ...