ELIORA BOUSQUET'S COLLECTIONS OF PAINTINGS

'Art is the way to feel, to love and to interpret the heartbeat of the universe.'
Roch Carrier

7 series of artworks
  

THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION

Summary:

The abstract painting collection "EVANESCENCE" is inspired by Eliora Bousquet's passion for the sky, stars, and the universe's perfect beauty and mystery. It represents the afterlife as the artist imagines and often dreams it: a timeless space where beauty rhymes with eternity, leaving room for imagination, the mother of inspiration and creativity.

An introduction by the Artist:

When I was a child, on summer evenings, my parents, my brother, and I would sit on the bench in the garden and look up at the starry sky while my father played the guitar. I was only seven years old, and I was amazed and completely captivated by this magical nighttime spectacle.

I remember asking my father, who has now joined those wonderful stars in the sky:

• 'Daddy, are these stars far away?'
• 'Oh, yes! Very, very far away! They are in infinite space!'
• 'Daddy, what's infinity?'
• 'Infinity? ...Well... when you get there, it's still a little further away!'

I think since that day, I have never stopped wanting to get closer to the sky. As I do not have the means to do so on this limited earthly plane, I spend my time imagining it and reproducing, on canvases as white as the night is black, with dozens of iridescent, bright, or muted colors, all the landscapes I see in my dreams, hence the title of my collection: 'CELESTIAL VISIONS'.

Apart from my readings of works dedicated to the cosmos, of which I am passionate, I found the inspiration for this collection of abstract atmospheric paintings in French and English Romantic poetry from the second half of the 19th century (Alphonse de Lamartine, Charles Baudelaire, Théodore de Banville, Paul Verlaine, Victor Hugo, William Wordsworth, John Keats, William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, etc.). I particularly like this poetic genre for the vibrant tribute paid to the beauty of nature and the simplicity of things, for its musicality, for the heightened emotions with which it is imbued, often halfway between hope and despair, for the existential questions it raises through its extended metaphors, chiaroscuro, and surrealistic images.

My "Celestial Visions" collection speaks of the sky as I imagine it, without ever reproducing existing landscapes. I love this sky because it belongs to everyone, although no one is its master. It is an eternal space of truly divine beauty, made of perfection and harmony, inaccessible but a permanent source of inspiration; a space between yesterday and tomorrow, where freedom takes its essence and imagination takes flight...

In this respect, I dedicate my "Celestial Visions" to all those who have retained their childlike soul and know how to marvel, even in the winter of their age. We live, every day, at the heart of the most beautiful work of art there is; a work of such value that it has no price... Take some time to admire it, and please protect it!

'Let us dream of evanescence and abandon ourselves to the crazy beauty of things.'
Okakura Kakuzo

18 series of artworks
  

THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION

Summary:

Eliora Bousquet's 'EVANESCENCE' collection is made up of eighteen series of paintings on the theme of the wind, in its spirittual sense, which we know 'blows where it wants'. In this collection, the sea represents the existence we have to cross, sometimes without seeing the horizon, often against winds and tides. The very frequent vertical movements symbolize the need to free oneself from weightlessness, from matter, to access more spirituality. The 'EVANESCENCE' collection is a romantic ode to life, in its poetical sense: a life which is all the more beautiful for being ephemeral.

An introduction by the Artist:

Isn't it peculiar how the imagery of air and breath accompanies us throughout our lives - just as we are given 'the breath of life' when we come into the world, we give out our 'final breath' when time has come for us to depart this earth. What if our lives were as ethereal as air, our fragile existence but a light touch on the canvas of the world, condemned ultimately to oblivion ? Air and the lightness and freedom of the wind are the inspiration behind this collection, which celebrates impermanence and the fragile beauty of a but ephemeral life, hence its title 'Evanescence'.

Although I have used matter and texture to create volume throughout this collection, I have deliberately done so in soft and light touches, as if I had been using watercolour, to let emotion and light shine through. My brush strokes also recall the curves of an ECG, their constant and rapid movement to and fro, linking the top and bottom of each painting. As it is in life, where we have highs and lows, harmony can and must be born of the union of opposites.

In this collection, everything I paint appears to reach for the sky. In each painting there is a movement upwards, a desire to escape gravity. In my art as in my life, I am permanently torn between my dream of an ethereal life and aspiration to infinity, and my real life, with my feet firmly on the ground, and subject to all the limitations of reality. Painting is my way of bridging these two lives, both equally precious to me, despite their contradictions.

There are also numerous references to reflections on water, and water as a mirror in this collection, inspired by Alphonse de Lamartine's poem 'Le Lac' (The Lake) : 'Constantly pushed toward new coasts like this, swept away into eternal night without return on the ocean of the ages - can we never cast anchor for a single day ? (…) O time, suspend your flight ! And you, happy hours, suspend your race : let us savor the fleet delights of our fairest days ! Let us love then, let us love ! Let us revel in the flying hour - Hurry ! Man has no harbour, Time has no shore; it flows, and we pass !'

I imagine this lake guiding us between its shores fringed with reeds, thoughtful, fragile and yet so resilient, those of whom Jean de La Fontaine said that whilst they do bend, they never break ! Stylised reeds reminiscent of long bird feathers are present as a signature in almost all of my paintings in this symbolic collection...

'Evanescence' raises existential issues and is therefore quintessentially a romantic collection, in the literary meaning of the word. There is however no place for despair here – the streaks of colour which convey the impression of a vanishing dream are neither tears nor the sign of a bleeding heart… On the contrary, I have used all the colours of the rainbow to sing this high and clear : 'Carpe Diem ! Enjoy today for all it has to offer, for time goes by and life soon runs its course'.

'Lightness of a bird that does not need to sing to own the forest - not even one tree.'
Christian Bobin

4 series of artworks
   

THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION

Summary:

Eliora Bousquet's collection "POETIC FICTIONS" is imbued with a thirst for freedom. Comprising of four series of paintings, it depicts stylized seascapes, birds, and sailboats, seeking with poetry and lightness to escape the confines of a certain reality.

An introduction by the Artist:

If my colors were words... I would write them with a quill! My collection of abstract works, "POETIC FICTIONS," is inspired by my most cherished concept: "freedom". Hence the frequent references to birds, boats (especially sailboats), as well as brush strokes that seem to dance on the canvas, seeking to take flight and break free from gravity.

Because my work as an artist is based on this yearning for freedom and the pursuit of harmony, the colors I use and combine all have a particular significance.

My paintings always carry a strong symbolic value, which can be discovered either by looking at the painting or deciphering its title.

Why does this collection speak of "poetic fictions?" To me, true poetry resides in the eye and heart of the beholder. Like imagination, it is the ability to feel and see beyond things.

'You have to see abstract painting as you listen to music, feel the emotional interiority of the work without looking for an identification with any figurative representation. What is important, therefore, is not to see the abstract, is to feel it.'
Gerard Schneider

7 series of artworks
   

THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION

Summary:

The 'CHROMATIC FANTASIAE' painting collection is inspired by the creativity and choppy rhythm of jazz music. Eliora Bousquet compares this collection to a musical score where colors, like notes, swing on the canvas. On this score, each color has its place and, combined with other colors, a particular role to play in creating harmony.

An introduction by the Artist:

To me, painting is its own language that finds its form in the musicality of things, imposing its own rhythm, its own movement, chaining themes in cadence until reaching a certain harmony. Perhaps that's why the title of my collection nods to Jean-Sébastien Bach's 'Chromatic Fantasiae'… After all, can one put a flat note on comparing painting to music, when both can only exist through the use of a 'range of tones' harmoniously orchestrated? Moreover, don't we talk about 'lyrical' abstract art?

However, if my paintings could emit sounds, their music would have a more 'jazz' than classical side: it would be inventive, totally improvised around themes, largely instinctive though mastered, both soft, provocative, and unpredictable. They would also carry messages; a rather complex music, in short, although simple in appearance… because when one believes to see an image, guess a symbol, understand the meaning of the painting, it is turned, and there… other images appear; one never knows which themes will follow until the end of the melody, nor which color to assign to the played piece.

For colors to sound good together, they must vibrate, they must 'swing' on the canvas, like so many notes that land, chain, and agree on the score of life. If my painting mixes color with gesture in a 'raw', almost instinctive way, it is because it aims to be lively enough for all the senses to be in tune...

'The artist must not copy nature but take the elements of nature and create a new item.'
Paul Gauguin

5 series of artworks
  

THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION

Summary:

Matter is life itself. That is why Eliora Bousquet's collection 'NATURESSENCES' prominently features thick, knife-worked layers of color. Stylized nature is omnipresent in these paintings, as it represents the mother of all things and the essence of life, giving the collection its name: 'NATURESSENCES.'

An introduction by the Artist:

As a passionate admirer of romantic poetry, particularly that of French poets such as Alphonse de Lamartine and Victor Hugo, as well as British poets such as William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Keats, and Walt Whitman, I have designed my 'NATURESSENCES' collection as an ode to nature and its essence, both spiritual and rooted in tangible reality, hence the name combining the words 'nature' and 'essences.'

For romantic poets, nature, an omnipresent theme, is the means by which the Creator of all things manifests its magnificence. It embodies the perfection of its creation. Like the 'Garden of Eden', it is an idyllic, timeless place filled with serenity. It is a place of contemplation where one can dream, meditate, and reflect on the meaning of life, including man's place in the universe. In this place of contemplation, the materialism of the modern world, with its over-connection and lack of time for the sacred moments of silence, has no place.

Rhythmic with the four seasons, with spring being my favorite, this nature sings Life with a capital 'L'. For when one contemplates nature, one inevitably arrives at Truth. Thus, nature is also a Way, THE WAY. This nature is sacred.

To highlight this notion of life, I have painted each of my paintings with thick, knifed-on layers of paint, rather than using a brush, as in my other collections. However, despite this thick, structured material, the movements are dynamic and light, for life is never static.

A unifying theme between 'NATURESSENCES' and my other collections is the Wind, as a 'breath'. This creative breath that shapes landscapes, bends reeds without breaking them, and inspires poets to seek the secret meaning of things and bring it to light.

Through painting, through the magical medium of art, I hope once again to demonstrate the power and supremacy of Emotion over Reason. For, as French Writer Vauvenargues wrote, 'Reason deceives us more often than nature.'

'To see a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour.'
William Blake

7 series of artworks
  

THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION

Summary:

According to George Braque, 'emotion does not add, nor does it initiate: it is the seed, and the work is the blooming'. Creation = Blossoming. A theme that frequently appears in the work of the artist Eliora Bousquet is the quest for the lost paradise, a paradise of abstract flowers populated by birds. Her semi-figurative collection 'RENAISSANCE' represents an idealized Eden. In this garden located between two seas (the one above and the one below, following the separation described in Genesis), flowers mix with marine corals to create an eternal spring filled with hope: that of a new beginning, a rebirth.

An introduction by the Artist:

Life is like a wildflower that lives only two of our four seasons. It blooms in spring, a magical moment of grace, to flourish, hardy, under the sun of Amon. Then it wilts, withers, on a brown autumn day... And nothing replaces it when winter has come.

In this land of ice, of confused memories that no sun embraces, hope seems lost. Unless a rainbow comes to light up the space and draw again the alliance of the Beginning... the one made to Noah, somewhere near a mountain, a sign of renewal.

Life is a flower, lighter than a feather; I call it 'Happiness' for it does not last. It is a fragile flower, living far from the asphalt, whose stem is cut, but does not complain: if its stem is cut, its green bird wings are only offered... for life is a gift!

In the autumn of my life, I still dream of an eternal spring where hope would bloom, a pledge of blue tomorrows. 'Renaissance' is the name I chose for this collection, as a nod to my favorite period of history, because it is marked by creativity and renewal. It represents both the lost paradise and the Promised Land, the Elysian fields, the gardens of Arcadia... the rediscovered Eden, a place of all possibilities!

Each painting invites the viewer to daydream in a fairy garden bathed in iridescent light. In this garden, there is a rule: take care of each moment like a fragile flower, as happiness is made of only ephemeral moments put into bunches...

In the manner of Pierre de Ronsard, I invite you, through this collection, to stop, for a moment, the frenzied race of Time and relive your most beautiful spring days: 'Live, if you believe me, do not wait for tomorrow: Gather today the roses of life.' (*)

Carpe Diem!

(*) : Pierre de Ronsard, Sonnets for Helen

'A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.'
Paul Cezanne

10 series of artworks
  

THE STORY BEHIND THE COLLECTION

Summary:

Painting has always attracted Eliora Bousquet due to the infinite variety of colors that can be created. These colors, powerfully evocative, provoke extraordinary emotions and sensations that unleash the imagination and, simply put, free the mind! By mixing colors together, with water or other liquid or solid elements, sometimes unexpected results are achieved. The paint becomes uncontrollable, takes shape, and lives on its own, creating a form of magic, of alchemy, which is why the collection is named 'AQUALCHEMY'. The use of blown watercolor and liquid ink pays homage to two of the artist's most beloved fundamental elements: air and water, which are at the source of this abstract and experimental collection.

An introduction by the Artist:

[ Texts are being written and will be soon available. ]