Slice of Life II Painting

My direct environment has always been my source of inspiration as I would like my art to make you marvel at our world, and its daily simplicity, humor, and beauty. This is a portrait of my daughter Charlotte who happily posed for me in the studio. I painted this portrait and a portrait of her sister in the same style simultaneously. In theater the term Slice of Life indicates a naturalistic representation of real life. In anime and manga, it refers to a genre that often parallels teen melodrama in addition to using slice-of-life narrative techniques. A fitting title for a teenager portrait! At the core of my work is an exploration of the tension between opposite concepts, like the symmetry of geometric patterns and the fluidity of the figure, transparency and solidity, reality and imagination. I love experimenting with different media (acrylic, watercolor, ink, graphite...) following the pull of my curiosity, although supported by a rigorous and traditional approach. This portrait of my daughter allowed me to explore the incorporation of elements of classical drawing into a painting. This exploration is found very often in my works. In this case, the figure has been drawn with graphite on canvas and the rest of the painting has been done in acrylics. The patterning has been patiently hand drawn and gives this painting a look reminiscent of fabric or paper collage. Like a tightrope walker, I find pleasure in exploring the in-between space where reality meets fantasy. My subjects, even though rooted in realism, often display a splash of the unreal, the unexpected or the whimsical.