Many of your works are inhabited by a face emerging from limbo. What does it tell us?
It's an inner dialogue between the reality of these faces and the abstraction of what surrounds them. They are in a reflective posture. It's a way of giving form to everything that inhabits us internally, and of making connections with what surrounds us. With the abstract backgrounds that represent a certain nature, the nourishing, medicinal, spiritual forest. We appear, we disappear, nature is always there. It's the appropriate place to pause and reflect on our journey.
From French Guiana to the Hautes-Pyrénées, is the relationship between the face and the background the same?
What I painted in French Guiana is very rooted in life there. The paintings represent a specific person. When I arrived in mainland France, I detached myself from that. I wanted something more poetic, more mystical. The looks, the faces no longer really resemble what I saw. I rework the gaze until a kind of space settles in, and suddenly, in this gaze, I rediscover the moods that speak to me.
Do you move from the green of the forest to the mineral gray of the mountain?
I really thought I'd leave the forest with a few paintings, one of which is called "A Last Green." And I really thought I'd arrive in mainland France, imagining myself in mineral gray. And when I arrived in Bagnères, I discovered the forest before the mountain. We went to the Baronnies to see the Little Amazon, and we really rediscovered the atmosphere of Guyana. Green is still present in my paintings, but my color palette shifts to more mineral, more pastel hues, without me actually seeking it. The very present green of the Guyanese forest somewhat disappeared from my paintings for a while. I don't want to bring the Guiana forest here, but I don't yet know Bagnères and the Pyrenees well enough to work on that. For now, I'm observing, I'm seeing what nourishes me. I'm in a kind of airlock between Guiana and here.
You've exhibited at the Abbadiale and in Guiana. Is the public's perspective the same here as there?
I wasn't exhibiting quite the same things. In Guiana, people came to meet and rediscover Guiana in my paintings, in its diversity, in its issues. Here, I've exhibited other, more abstract paintings. But I saw that it worked, that it spoke to visitors.
Where do you want to go?
I continue to follow the thread of the connection between people and what surrounds them. I want to transcribe what isn't necessarily visible. I saw that in Bagnères there was the Grotte des Fayes, the Virgin of Bédat. Very spiritual and mystical places that make me want to go and see how we can connect with them. We see the traces of the men and women who have made the place their own over time. I'd have to visit the archives to find out more. The forest had a lot to tell. I think the mountains have a lot to tell too. That's what I want to explore in my painting. But for the moment, I don't know them well enough to be able to tell these stories.
How are you settling into your life as an artist in the Hautes-Pyrénées?
I took a professionalization course that allowed me to meet other artists and people in the sector. I realized that there was a serious lack of venues—associative ones, at least, because there are a few institutional venues—to exhibit and create a real dynamic. I'd like to resume a part-time activity alongside painting. In French Guiana, I set up painting workshops, I also worked in image education. And in audiovisual cinema for a festival. These are activities I'd like to resume here part-time alongside painting. Because it takes time to paint, to build a network, to look for exhibition venues. And to do the paperwork and the administrative side. Being an artist means being an entrepreneur.
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