We found this artist – Christel – in her Atelier in Tourrettes Var. In our broken French – well OK – non-existent French – we had a jolly good conversation about art and her art.
Her Studio is called Figures Vives – mmm, how do you say? – Living Figures? And her work moves with vitality. Christel, herself, is vibrant and enthusiastic and so, for us, we could see her personality appear in her art. It’s vigorous!
I only have a photo of her shop – but I’m putting a link here to her website. If you are interested in art, you will see how lively her work is – and we saw her portraits. Art it always better in real life – always!
Her portraits are remarkable. Many are huge. She paints the same face, over and over, until it has “fed” her completely and she has taken the last vestige out of it. Her last in the series of Nelson Mandela portraits was very interesting to me. It wasn’t large. She painted it on engineering diagrams that appear in the background, of a finer, translucent layer of the face, as if, on some deep inner signal, it had now become emotionally desiccated for her and “mechanised”. Well that’s how I took it anyway.
Here is a picture of her studio followed by her website link which you can translate into English.
If you love art, you will find her site interesting. Enjoy.
The Last Furlong 
Mar 26, 2016 at 12:27
So glad you are having a good time. I am very proud of France. And they don’t care if you can’t speak French, so long as you try.
LikeLike
Mar 26, 2016 at 13:43
You are absolutely right! It’s amazing how people understand us as we limp along. And SO friendly and obliging!
LikeLike
Mar 26, 2016 at 13:57
They are the kindest most well mannered people I have ever come across. After more than twenty years I am still amazed.
And once you have cracked the jumble, it is the most beautiful language of all, even if you can’t understand what they are saying half the time.
I miss the sound of it dreadfully on the rare occasions I go to UK. I sometimes think I might die if I never heard it again.
Please come back.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mar 26, 2016 at 15:07
Ah – beautiful comment! Thank you.
LikeLike
Pingback: THE LAST FURLONG – Artistic blog | Figures Vives
Pingback: Christel Leleu-Ferro – Tourrettes Var, artist 2017 Post one | The Last Furlong