Interview with Jacqueline Poitevin — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Your artworks often evoke a deep connection with nature and personal narrative, reflecting your upbringing in Touraine and your travels. How do you see your artistic evolution mirroring the landscapes and cultures you have encountered, and can you elaborate on how these elements synergistically shape the narratives within your paintings?

I was born in a water mill in the middle of nature and that created a very strong bond with nature! As a child, when I frolicked in the meadows, crossing the river on tree trunks, I spoke to the trees, the birds, the fish, the butterflies, the dragonflies, and finally to all the beings around me. They populated my solitude… which was no longer solitude!

Nature is anchored in my world and vice versa. This gave birth to strong and memorable emotions which, at sometimes unexpected moments, spread out on the canvas, reactivated by a light, an image, a sound... the birdsongs.

And in nature, there are also human beings with whom I like to interact even if they are often absent from my paintings. Their teachings enrich my work. This involves the colors but also the way they mix.

For me, there are no borders, and colors don't have any either. Richness comes from mixing and this is what my paintings reflect.

Moreover, like nature, like man in nature, there is a pressing need for balance and harmony...

At least that's how I experience it!

The philosophical phrase, "Predict the future by creating it," prominently influences your work. Could you discuss how this philosophy impacts your artistic decisions and how you embody this notion through your creative processes?

“Predicting the future by creating it” This makes me think of my first exhibition! A friend from painting class was tired of the repetitive remarks from the teacher who didn't appreciate the way we painted, or at least who tried to impose his style on me after having taught me so much. We rented a large premises in the Marais and we created the event by exhibiting our work face to face: different styles but a similar color palette which created a sort of harmony.

We performed together, we welcomed the children of an 18th-century sports association, listened to them, answered their questions, and organized a painting workshop with them so that they could, in turn, express themselves with paint on pieces of canvas like us!

This is how I took the plunge…

My creative process is spontaneous, and all occasions are opportunities to create not just in painting. I believe that there are more solutions than problems and so everything becomes possible. I am more opportunistic than a careerist! I dream and when the door opens, I decide whether to go or not, more by instinct than by calculation.

You've transitioned from more traditional forms of art to abstraction later in your career. What prompted this shift, and how has working with acrylics on large canvases on the floor liberated or transformed your artistic expression compared to earlier methods?

I did not attend a Fine Arts school… that was not an option in my family. I was unable to study architecture as I wanted and had, at that time, neither the strength nor the means to oppose and study.

However, my training is very traditional since it was given to me by experienced artists at the “Ecole des Beaux-Arts” in France but also abroad and more particularly in Colombia where I worked for a few years. The change came much later when I was finally able to enroll in a visual arts workshop at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. I thus discovered acrylic painting and large formats.

In a room with very high windows, there were often 6 of us, on the floor in sizes up to 2x2m. Impressive? Yes and no. I very quickly felt impulses, using colors with an assurance that surprised me and above all with a newfound freedom... I quickly overcame the constraints. Of course, the teacher who is also a painter, from a family of painters, taught me a lot and I was very happy to quickly put his teachings into practice. I was almost flying with my own wings!

During your time in Colombia, particularly in Chocó, you worked closely with Afro-descendant and indigenous communities. In what ways have these experiences informed your art, and how do you approach the responsibility of representing such culturally rich yet nuanced narratives?

The years spent with Afro-descendant and indigenous communities have enriched me enormously. With them, I found life in the great outdoors with an essential balance, harmony... and great respect..., which allows them to live almost independently since there is no road, no electricity, no water. apart from that of rivers, the river and… rain in the rainy season.

I sometimes find images and emotions in my paintings without having tried to reproduce them. They are underlying, always in me, and often vibrate very strongly.

Abstraction allows me to express the intimate with modesty. The colors, the mixtures, the stains, the paint strokes are like “words” on the canvas…

But this also leaves everyone the possibility of finding what suits them without it being only what the artist, without me imposing my own vision.

"El ranchito quedó dañado…" fragile construction in Chocó which is often damaged by heavy rains.

My responsibility? in my paintings, it is the freedom of each person.

Besides painting, I also wrote a book about these human experiences. I would have liked to publish it but it didn't happen... maybe one day?

My project, my responsibility was to make known the situation of these populations then threatened by the armed conflict and “forgotten", and "unknown” in a region where the State was not present.

I also have a film project “20 Years Later” to make a sort of assessment, of what has changed for these communities. Has their situation changed? A responsible testimony. The project is on paper, to be carried out with a Colombian team (photographer, filmmaker, sound recordist, journalist, etc.). I was thinking of working with final-year students so that it would be a final-year project for example and not just a hobby for them. Painting currently takes up a large part of my time and the film project is on standby.

You've mentioned a crucial step in your career was learning to part with your artwork, to let it "go elsewhere." How has this emotional and philosophical shift in viewing your creations as entities that live beyond you influenced your approach to new projects?

During my many and varied professional experiences, I have had the opportunity (sometimes the obligation) to leave everything to start again and therefore to learn to mourn... a certain detachment is much easier when it occurs. deals with material things.

And, during my work in the humanitarian sector, I learned to listen and not to “get attached”, to support without dependence.

It was then during the first exhibition that I realized that these experiences would be useful to me. I showed my paintings and they aroused interest… so I agreed to let them go. The one I thought I would keep for myself… sold very quickly! As always, a favorite!

And is it also a reflection on the role that is mine? Share what I put in my paintings, the beauty, the serenity, the harmony, and the emotions that it awakens in the observer, in the buyer. It's pleasant and rewarding if it offers something positive to someone... it makes my painting useful... and that's very important for me who always wanted to be of service!

From drawing on any surface available in the meadows of your childhood to the confinements of an attic in Paris and expansive canvases today, how have changes in your physical workspace influenced the evolution of your style and the themes you explore in your art?

There is one constant about me, it is my ability to concentrate. I can be alone in the world in the middle of a crowd... On the contrary, in a certain solitude, my imagination populates my Universe without the place and its size having as much importance. Certainly, the countryside was extensive, freedom… “the World”!

From my little studio under the roof, I dreamed that the world was at my feet and I walked a lot to discover it.

Pushing the limits to the point where the limits are no longer limits!!!

Of course, the size of the works varies a little with the size of the space in which I paint, but sometimes I am able to move everything to have more space. The themes, if I may say so, come more from the stages of my life than from space. For example, at the beginning of 2024, I was inspired by bridges as an obsession with a figurative part that left no room for doubt on the subject.

But, very quickly, the inspiration dried up with this exercise which quickly proved repetitive... I got bored and after taking this step, I resumed my freedom of creative expression. I had surely finished crossing “the river”…

Creating transforms me, inspiration also pushes the limits, allows a different state of consciousness, a connection with the universe... and this offers me a new understanding of myself and mixes with spirituality, acting in synergy.

Soleil couchant sous le pont, 30x30 2024

Having been both a student and a teacher in the arts, how do you perceive the role of education in shaping artistic talent? What has been the most significant lesson you've imparted to or received from your students that has stayed with you throughout your career?

The technique is essential for me in drawing as in painting. It's the same thing in music even if today, we learn to play an instrument without knowing music theory.

Everything is relative, and schools of Fine Arts have not always existed yet many talented artists have expressed themselves and their works populate our museums. They learned under the guidance of a master… talent is not born in a school, however prestigious it may be!

Mastering the technique gives me a certain confidence, facilitates my work, and allows me to let go of it to welcome what comes, like abstraction, which without seeming it, also has its rules.

To conclude this question, the lesson I learned very early on is to listen to my heart and its palpitations. He tells me if I'm happy to continue and if I'm not, to look for another path! This is what I tried and I still try to transmit not only as a teacher but rather as a philosophy applied to my life.

Looking forward, how do you envision your role and responsibilities as an established artist influencing emerging artists, especially those who may be navigating their own cross-cultural experiences and artistic identities?

I am not a “committed” artist. I do not seek to have a particular role and do not take on any responsibility unless there is a request. Being a good listener, I respond to requests every time. Otherwise, I consider that everyone makes their own way and can do so with complete freedom. Freedom is not just a word! I am lucky to live in a country where this freedom can be expressed, certainly with respect for others, so my role can be, by embodying this freedom, to make everyone want to live theirs fully.

You have exhibited extensively around the world. How do you prepare for an exhibition, and what do you hope your audience takes away from experiencing your art in such diverse cultural settings?

I have actually exhibited and am exhibiting in many countries starting with Paris and France, Tokyo and Seoul via Berlin, Milan, Florence, Venice, Madrid, Alicante, and now New York, soon Brussels, and a major project for 2025 and for which I already have some contacts: Bogota, Medellin, and Cali in Colombia, then Mexico, Havana, Miami and New York or Philadelphia before returning to France.

I was lucky to have offers and not to have had to canvass! The galleries offer me locations and help me select works according to different cultural spaces. This does not prevent audacity from going against the grain.

While I usually paint without preparatory work, spontaneously, without a plan before “throwing” the paint on the canvas, sometimes I respond more precisely to the theme of the exhibition. I then need time to mature so that the theme creates images in me before starting. Then, I am in my “bubble – universe” and let myself be guided, for example for “Las Musas Encantadoras”, a collective exhibition at Museo del Mar in Santa Pola-Alicante, the two paintings of which you will find below.

Les couleurs des Les muses enchanteresses

As I painted a lot before starting to exhibit and then sell, I created a lot of works and I am happy today to find them again to exhibit them, to discover the reaction of the public, the emotions they give birth or not, to be able to exchange what is for me very enriching and also very moving when sometimes the emotion is so intense that tears flow...

"Touching” others in their intimacy without words… has something universal, as can music and art in general.

Having spent significant periods of your life in both solitude and the public eye, how has your relationship with solitude influenced your creative process? How do you balance introspection with the external influences of audience reception and critical review in your practice?

Loneliness? I have somehow tamed it, I am never really alone with myself. I mean that my inner world is rich and is continually enriched by the environment and various exchanges wherever I am. There are always noises and therefore presences and I am very sensitive to them: birds, insects, and other vehicles, voices... a certain solitude but no silence!

And then visually, I can observe details and I therefore feel surrounded by flowers, plants, trees… There is no feeling of emptiness either outside or inside …I make my friends laugh when I say “There are people in my head”…

In the spotlight? very little even if I participated in two plays and I also do my best to attend openings and closings to be in contact with the public, listen to them, and answer their questions.

On this occasion, I also perform. I then rediscover the emotions experienced before going on stage, the stage fright the adrenaline rush, and the well-being, the satisfaction of the work accomplished. When I start painting, I am alone in my bubble. My universe can also be enriched with music which will then guide my gestures, sometimes even the choice of colors. It is created like a synergy.

This is how I manage external influences, by integrating them into my world but in my own way, often after having “digested” them, and reworked them. Here comes again the mill of my childhood -and the circle is complete.

https://jacquelinepoitevin.com/