Le tronc Painting

An accomplished painter and pastellist, Nathalie Jaguin has been working as a full-time professional artist since 2003. For a decade and a half, she specialized in portraiture with a view to faithfully depicting the sitter : an exacting technique which she perfectly mastered. She undertook 6000 figure portait commissions in the course of those 15 years. A very strict discipline, portrait-painting mainly implies the accurate reproduction of the sitter’s features. The technical rigors and precision required to render a realistic image, demand an absolute command of the art of drawing, leaving very little room for the artist’s fantasy. This was what she missed most. While still applying her skills to portrait painting, Nathalie therefore decided to explore other avenues, consequently offering an exciting new leeway to her bubbling imagination. In the « Experimental Portraits » series, she deliberately adopted a different approach, handling her pastel in an alternative fashion by using it lengthwise. This technique gives a satisfying « carved-from-the-block » feel to the painting, in which texture becomes foremost. The subject appears to be chiseled out of the matter itself, a bit similar to modelling clay. Additionally Nathalie ventured away from the usual technique which consisted in initially drawing and sketching before applying colours. She subsequently discovered new unchartered territories devoid of any limits, where raw pastel became a predominant feature. Choosing to leave the pastels unblended, she achieves this visually rich variety of colours by using a layering technique. This much favoured endeavour met with widespread enthusiasm on the part of the general public. The artistic method heralded a new approach based on a bold, primitive « back-to-basics » attempt. In due course her love for raw material led Nathalie to start painting oils on canvass, using a palette knife. She consequently explored a new range of subjects and discovered with unmingled pleasure the art of painting in a sculptor’s way, unbrindled by contraints. In doing so, she happily allows the colours to enlighten her, pervading the canvas, stroke after stroke, fuelling a new creative spirit. Her breathtaking landscapes, her amazing still lives and portraits stand out for their unique and original quality, breaking away from what is usually acknowledged as traditional painting.