Portraits, still figures and moving colours.

I am a self-taught oil painter based in Le Mans, France, and I mainly paint portraits and the female figure. I have worked in oil since 2021, painting from photographs in my studio. My work has been shown in exhibitions across the Sarthe and is held in private collections in France.

Once a painting is planned, I work at two speeds. First, I build the face and body slowly with brushes, in thin, smooth layers. Then I lay down the space around them with fast palette-knife movements, creating depth, playing with texture, and dragging colour until it breaks apart, leaving patches of bare primed canvas showing.

The figure holds still while everything around her moves.

Light does two things in my work: it reveals the form, and it adds poetry. It often comes from behind: sometimes it forms a halo, sometimes it floods the background so the body stands against the glare. To catch that light, I dress my figures in silk evening gowns, corsets and opera gloves, and adorn them with gold bangles, bracelets and jewels.

Most of my subjects look down or close their eyes. When one looks back, the feeling shifts: the viewer stops contemplating and starts being watched.

I am a practising Catholic, and my faith shapes how I paint the body. I see it as part of creation, made in God’s image. The nude, for me, is not something to hide but something to admire with care.