Meunier Dominique — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Mar 24

Mar 24 Meunier Dominique

Biography

His life is the story of resilience through painting.
Dominique MEUNIER was born in 1966. He lives and works near Besançon (France), in Franche-Comté, the homeland of the painter Courbet.
He was taught by his mother whose work on decorative art was exhibited at the Besançon Fine Arts Museum.
Then a career in silkscreen printing awakened and cultivated his taste for mixed techniques and the diversity of supports.
After a serious road accident, he devoted himself entirely to creation through a deep and broad practice covering various methods and materials that promote the variety and freedom of his style, united by a solid content around another resilience, that of nature sanctuarized in the subtle frequency of the most fragile vibration of time: the ephemeral.
His permanent research on the fragile reciprocity of man and his environment and the ultimate reality of phenomena has been recognized in several museums, galleries and art fairs, in France and abroad.

Artist Statement

In silence, I live from landscapes in the middle of my ephemeral refuges.
And on a path turned towards the essential, I aspire to a spirituality, to a harmony of the relationship between man and nature, seeking to capture the sensitive beyond appearances, an exploration of the resilience of nature, its power and its beauty, as a door of Light open to oneself.
Through a poetics of the ephemeral, I question the possibilities of representing what seems to be at stake: the unity of man and the cosmos, the unity of man and meaning. I paint the ultimate reality of phenomena.

What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?

Painting is a family affair. I have been painting and drawing since childhood, a passion passed on by my mother, herself a painter and draughtswoman whose work on decorative art was exhibited at the Besançon Fine Arts Museum. She taught me painting.Then a career in silk-screen printing allowed me to develop my taste for mixed techniques which favours the presence of numerous textural effects in my work.
But I really became a painter 20 years ago after a very serious road accident. Painting then became for me an "inner necessity" in order to reconquer my life. Since then I have devoted myself totally to painting.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

I am a landscape painter who defends nature. I emphasise the spiritual and the meaningful. I aspire to a spirituality, to a harmony in the relationship between man and nature, seeking to capture the sensitive beyond appearances, an exploration of the resilience of nature, its power and beauty, as a door of Light open to oneself. My contemplative approach to landscape reflects a mystical vision of nature and life. It emphasizes the importance of atmospheric rendering and light effects that announce the journey from one world to another.

What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?

We live in an enigmatic universe where there is a secret communication between the sensitive natural world and the invisible surreal world, and I seek to show it. When I show the ephemeral, it is to propose a reflection on the meaning of life, its fragility, a reflection on its natural environment. By showing the beauty and the powers of nature, I seek to provoke the conscience to protect and defend it.

Can you explain the process of creating your work?

My video site www dominique-meunier.com My little formula is simple! I use mixed techniques with first of all material applied with a knife on the frame (sand mortar or textured pastes) then pigment paint, or oil, or mixed inks, in chromatic sobriety, according to the atmospheric rendering that I want to present.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

Textural effects are very present and very important in my work. I am fascinated by the imprint of time on the material. It is a game of construction and deconstruction that meets the hazards or accidents of the material. I intervene in the state of upheaval. I search, I analyse, I dig, I scrape by touches and textured effects with the help of biological mortars and various structural pastes. With my knife, my trowel or my hand, I elaborate a background that leads me to the essential, a form of stripping of lines and curves that I then reveal through colour.

Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspiration, or what we can look forward to from you in the near future?

For a long time I have been working on the monochrome of blue (see Artist of the Future Award ) because blue for me is the colour of healing and for me the expression of serenity. For the last two years I have been deepening my approach to variations on black and mixed inks or irridescent creams. The atmospheric rendering is amplified (see Collector's Vision International Art Award) and these techniques allow me to show more finely the communication between the natural sensitive worlds and the invisible world.

Website: www.dominique-meunier.com

Instagram: www.instgram.com/dominiquemeunierpainter

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dominique.meunier77736