[by Marion Rivolier from Paris, France]
The weather was a little bit cold and windy but the light was so nice that I couldn't resist painting this incredible place: Place du Palais Royal between the Louvre and the Comédie Française in Paris. Thirty years ago, the great French artist Daniel Buren created 260 cylinders in marble with white and black stripes. This place is wonderful to do some perspective exercises because the mesh is regular. And the Buren columns play with the colonnades of the buildings all around the place.
I wanted to compose my drawing from these huge columns and their stripes: what do they hide? What do they reveal? You don't need to draw a frame because the columns become the frame of your painting!You have to be careful to not paint too much and leave some of the white of your paper. The important thing in this work is the rhythm of the black and the white and how the stripes define the place.
In the same vein, when sculpture becomes the frame of my painting, you can discover my drawing of this sculpture "Horizons suspendus" from Dominique Labauvie on the Quai de Seine. I wanted to express space through the dark serpentine line of this artwork. I liked the strong contrast between the dark line, in the foreground, and the sweet atmosphere of the river and the buildings, in the background.
In this last painting, I was watching the other side of the sculpture. It was interesting to put the focus on the trees behind and the rhythm of the trunks playing with the “legs” of the sculpture. In this case, I expressed the contrast painting the sculpture in light colors. I also played with warm colors in the background and cool colors in the foreground. The result is a little bit abstract but I like that!
