Featured Artist
Alison Hirst Lebègue

“I have been drawn to art since I was very young. My grandfather and great-grandfather were also artists who were able to pass on their passion to me. I grew up surrounded by their sometimes complex but also very endearing works. I took private lessons when I was in middle school and this reinforced my choice of post-school studies. I did the preparatory year at the ESAG art school, where I learned to draw nudes and plasters but also worked with gouache on very specific and difficult exercises. Then I tried the Beaux-Arts in Paris but I admit that my work was not mature enough to enter. So I went towards a DEUG in Art History and then I went to England to do a degree in visual culture. There I learned to read any visual work regardless of the medium and I graduated with First Class of Honours in 1997. I took advantage of these three years to start oil painting. Unfortunately, following a domestic accident, many of my paintings were lost. Since then, I stopped practising oil painting and focused on my professional career, which took up more of my time, art is relegated to the rank of hobby.

Today, at the age of fifty-two years old and at a very personal turning point in my desires for the future, I have decided to return to a larger production, favouring watercolours, pastels and red chalk but also, for a few months, oil painting. I have also been interested in Linoprint since 2021, a practice that was the precursor to my new passion for creativity. My use of watercolour evokes a dreamlike world that I often have difficulty naming, leaving everyone free to develop their own reading of my works. I also work a lot by theme – flowers, abstract or realistic landscapes, portraits, Japanese prints inspired by my trip to Japan in 2015, etc.

My landscapes are also a testimony to the admiration I feel for the work of an English artist friend thanks who taught me lino print. As for the media, I like the effects of merging liquid inks but also the addition of Indian ink, or even embossing in order to bring relief. My rediscovery of pastels, but especially of oil painting mainly working with a palette knife, has shown that I am still prolific, whatever the chosen themes. I work a lot with colours, giving full life to the subject and engaging the viewer to enter a world apart, where the imagination has its reasons to exist. With a very small workshop at home, I learned to be very organized and rigorous in my creations with a view to results that are sometimes astonishing but also moving and often captivating.

My creative process begins with drawing, colour and creative freedom, developing paintings through play and experimentation. I have a passion for landscape painting, and portraits, but also vanitas and nudes. I believe that a painting, a pastel, an oil or a watercolour can only really work if the initial drawing or idea has a strong compositional form. I have spent many hours studying artists such as Miró, Picasso but also Monet and Art Nouveau. My love of colour is evident in all my works, it is always a joy to discover a vibrant colour with its ability to give rise to works that are sometimes abstract or even unidentifiable, and therefore just a picture for the pleasure of contemplation. In general, my works present an intense use of colours, bringing the subject to life and engaging the viewer to enter a world apart, from where the imagination holds a preponderant place.

I have decided to present four themes: landscapes, nudes, vanities, floral designs the portrait of Frida Kahlo and an oil painting of pink flamingos. These paintings range from oil paint to pastels and coloured inks. I’ve worked a lot with oil paint using a palette knife, which is a very difficult technique to master. But it’s thus very rewarding and I have experienced a lot of fun doing it. My landscapes are proof of the great opportunities that the palette knife can give to the final outcome of the painting.

My use of coloured inks and black ink whilst the background is not yet dry is a very interesting technique and results in very creative paintings with the inks merging, without much control from the artist. I have used pastels for nudes in movement, as well as for three vanities. I explore here the body but also portraits, with a final touch using a red colour pen for the vanities. I very much enjoy working with pastels, but it’s obvious that one can’t make a mistake as it’s impossible to erase the media. Finally, I am also presenting floral design and the portrait of Frida Kahlo using oil paint with a brush. It is easier than the palette knife, but also very rewarding. I am generally very interested in the use of colours, which I aim to be vibrant and joyful. Besides I work on a great variety of themes, always with the objective of being more and more creative as I pursue my artworks and discover new techniques. My artwork is always evolving and at times I can’t tell what will be the outcome until the final touch.”

more. www.alihirst.fr

Image courtesy of Alison Hirst Lebègue

Image courtesy of Alison Hirst Lebègue

Image courtesy of Alison Hirst Lebègue