Interview: Anne Scandella
Luca Curci talks with Anne Scandella during the 16th Edition of VENICE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2022, at Palazzo Bembo in Venice, and during the 7th edition of LONDON CONTEMPORARY 2023, at THE LINE Contemporary Art Space in London.

Anne Scandella is a self-taught painter who lives in Toulouse, France. After an education journey that ranges from the Humanities to the Political Sciences, Anne learned to manage the brushes. She first painted figurative works but, gradually, abstractive works became a prevailing means of expression for her because they allowed lots of freedom in creation. When it comes to painting, it all resides in gesture, in an energetic gesture or a sweet gesture, in the association of colours and rhythm. Her favourite medium is acrylic painting. Scandella’s artistic universe is colourful, dreamlike and eventful. It leans on changing rhythms, which are representative of the state of mind of the moment. Those rhythms are the structure of the artist’s work. They represent the expansion and the movement of life, the surprises, the dead ends, and the discoveries one may experience one day or another.

Luca Curci – How did you get to your current artistic practice ?
Anne Scandella – It’s been quite an astonishing process since I got to my current artistic practice. I am a self-taught painter. I realized that I wanted to paint nearly 8 years ago. When it’s been clear to me that I wanted to paint as often as I could, I began to take painting lessons and I set up a workshop at home to continue to practice every time I could. I realized that painting is something that I had in mind for a while and I was very happy to put it into practice. I started with figurative painting and quite rapidly, I directed myself to abstract painting which is my favourite medium of expression.

LC – What are your thoughts while you paint? Do you have any habits or rituals while you work?
AS – In fact, I don’t really think while I am painting. Most of the work is done before. It begins before the action of painting. A few days before I begin to draw a painting, I think about it and it’s a little as if I was painting it mentally. I imagine the different colors I will use, the dominant ones and the others, and I think of how everything will be organized. Then, when I am alone in front of the canvas, I let go and I put colors on it, and then I paint shapes and lines, which call other kinds of shapes, colors and lines.

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks ?
AS – For me, the first and most challenging part of creating my artwork occurs at the beginning of the painting. Indeed, I have quite everything in mind and it’s a little like “skydiving”. It requires a kind of energy and much concentration. Then, the second challenging part occurs at the end, when I have to decide when to stop painting. It means to decide whether or not a certain balance is reached inside the painting, a balance between abundance and rationality.

LC – Which art themes do you pursue? What is your preferred subject, if there is any?
AS – I think that the art theme I pursue in my paintings is emotional life and subjectivity. It has something to do with the world of dreams and emotions we have to experience.

LC – Do you use art to express something in particular? Is it your medium of expression?
AS – I use art to create an emotional space, which would be released from the usual rational references, to create a colourful and moving space of freedom, the freedom which characterizes the world of imagination and thoughts. I wish to create the visualization of a strange space, made of personal thoughts, flashes and emotions, and to capture those fleeting moments when an idea or an emotion grows then vanishes a few seconds later.

LC – We were attracted by your last artistic production, has the artwork presented been created for the exhibition or as a part of preexisting works?
AS – The artworks presented are part of my preexisting works.

LC – Can you explain something about the artworks you have in our exhibition?
AS – I think those 3 works are representative of my paintings because each of them shows a kind of tipping point or a key moment, and calls for alertness. In Chimères, we can see a very elegant red woman smoking in a strange green world full of shapes and swirls. No ground, no landmarks but a light in the middle that brings serenity and hope to this amazing interior landscape. In Le ballon rouge, there is a real atmosphere but a strange reality because there is no ladder for the floating woman to help her to come out of the water. It’s a sunny day and everything seems to be calm… In Oniromancies, a dreamlike world is created by the superposition of two worlds: the world we live in, with a sunny blue sky, and an enigmatic world, where round shapes coexist with geometric lines. That strange world looks like a thought process with associations of ideas and concepts and calls us for awareness.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
AS – I think that ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent a great opportunity for artists because it gives them the possibility to exhibit their works to a lot of international gallerists and professionals in the field of Art.

LC – Would you suggest a collaboration with us? What do you think about our services?
AS – For sure, I would suggest a collaboration with ITSLIQUID GROUP. I think that you provide the artists with a great diversity of services that can help them to get themselves known as an artist, to promote their works and make very interesting relationships in the world of Art.

LC – What is your idea about ITSLIQUID GROUP ?
AS – For me, ITSLIQUID GROUP is a cultural platform that organizes international events and exhibitions dedicated to emerging and established artists, to help them grow and develop a successful business for their artworks. To reach that goal, ITSLIQUID GROUP provides the artist’s lots of diversified and personalized services and tools.