(Selfportrait, golfing – 2004)
Some days ago I received following mail:
“Dear Miki
I came across your art in a search for some inspiration for my own piece of work, and honestly, I just love your style, it’s so full of life and energy! Also I noticed that you like drawing with watercolour and so do I. :]
Let me introduce myself; my name is Anastasia ,I’m 17 years old, and I’m doing my art AS exam this year in school on a little island in the Mediterranean, called Cyprus. And I absolutely ADORE art!:D
I would love to use your works, if you don’t mind, for my reference. You are one of the artists who influences my final art work. At the moment I’m planning my piece on sports, in particular gymnastics. I need to write your biography, but I’m having some difficulties finding it. So would you please tell me a little bit more about yourself and your style, if you have time or could you give me a site where I would read more about you? I will be really grateful if you reply!
Thank you in advance.
Sincerely yours
Anastasia”
As Anastasia says, it is not easy to find my biography on the net, the reason being that there is none (at least as far as I am aware!). I am not even sure that I have a biography, having some troubles in imagining myself in the past, this being one of the reasons why I can’t really write a biography. To avoid this problem, I suggested to Anastasia that she make an interview, asking me what she needed to know about me.
And now, thinking that other people also want to know who I am (or was!), here is the interview…
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(15.01.2009)
Could you please tell me when you were born and where?
I was born in 1955 in the French Pyrenees, in a town called Tarbes. But due to the profession of my father, we moved around France a lot as I was a child.
At 18 I left France to go and study Mathematics and Physics in Germany, where I remained until about 5 years ago. Then I moved to Spain, having chosen this country partly because of the weather which allows me to paint outside all year round.
Where did you study art?
I am mostly self taught. But I had a correspondence course in design with a University in Switzerland while I was working as a mathematician in the north of Germany. Through my mathematical skills I have learnt to recognise, analyse and lose problems, in which ever field of life they may be. This which means that I was always able to judge my paintings, correct and better them according to my visions (and not according to some art teacher’s vision!)
Was there anyone who influenced you to become an artist or was it your personal decision?
As I was a child, I had been totally driven from art by an Art teacher. She had not believed that a painting which we had been given to do as home work was done by myself. She thought I had it made by a grownup painter. I was so disgusted that I swore to myself: never art again!
I held fast to my promise until my first husband gave me a tiny little watercolour paints box for my birthday, as I was about 25 years old. As soon as I had put some colours on the paper, the passion arose… and I never stopped again to paint! But I always paid attention to keep my distance from art teachers, you might understand why now!
What else inspired you for your art work?
My own passions, of course, inspire my work: I paint what I love. But I receive much inspiration too from life and nature, from things which happen. The tiniest event might give me some idea of one painting, I start at once, follow the thread until I get totally bored and most of the time I end up having a whole series!
This explains why my work is so diverse: I just follow the winds… and there are many of them and in many directions!
Do you have favourite artists that also inspire you?
No, not really. I have to admit that my art education is very poor. I rarely go to museums, or galleries. I rarely look at art books. First of all because I fear that looking too close at other artists’ works could influence my style too much, and the most important thing for me, in painting, is to keep my natural, spontaneous style.
But also I kind of need a private connection to the artist to really get interested and appreciate their artworks. This means that 90% of the paintings I look at and love nowadays are done by Artist friends and acquaintances. We sometimes inspire each other too. My series „Fantascapes” for example was created based on an idea from my American friend Susan Cornelis, a wonderful artist and art teacher, we worked in parallel on the theme and published our works simultaneously on our blogs. It was a great moment of mutual inspiration and motivation.
But having said that, I have indeed a favourite, classical artist: Van Gogh.
What art media do you like using the most and why?
I like everything except oil (too slow, too smelly, too messy, too much preparation to start with…)!
Which media I actually prefer depends on my mood. But one can say that I generally prefer fast media, like watercolour, as I am a very spontaneous and impatient painter.
In watercolour I especially love the transparency, the freshness and the exciting, almost mystical feeling of catching a single point of the Time Space. A well-done watercolour painting has something divine, somehow. I also like the fact that it is not a forgiving medium, it must work at once, or it won’t. I like that, even if it can be very frustrating!
For some special aims like portraits I also love colour pencils. In connection with pastel, they can give a lot of depth and life to a portrait.
What do you aim to show in your works?
Oh, never thought about that! I think I don’t have a special aim when I paint, I just love the process of painting. It is a wonderful way of enjoying life and myself in all aspects!
What inspired your sport paintings? How do you manage to show all the energy and movement of a particular event in your painting?
I simply love sports, and I was, and still am myself a quite active sportwoman (daily swimming, much scuba diving in the past, skiing, tennis, much golf, windsurfing , skateboarding, cycling, kick boxing). I love and need movement, and this is why sport is a basic component of my life. Whatever I paint, even when I paint a still life like a simple coffee cup, it always strikes with movement… yes, especially my coffee cups love to dance on the paper!
When I paint sport, because I know so much about it and my body and brain are so used to movement, I suppose that movement and energy are automatically transmitted in my paintings. I don’t do it consciously.
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PS: In the following days I will publish 2 entries connected to 2 of my sport paintings, each one having a nice personal story…
