ELIORA BOUSQUET'S SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

Page Summary:

Painter Eliora Bousquet finds inspiration for her paintings in nature (especially the elements 'air' and 'water'), romantic poetry, existentialist philosophy, books on mythology and ancient civilizations and also classical and jazz music. Stylized bird feathers and sailboats are featured in many of her paintings, as they represent the Artist's dearest concept: FREEDOM. This concept is associated with a spiritual quest, a permanent wonder at the beauty and mystery of our world. Be it totally abstract or semi-figurative, Eliora Bousquet's painting seeks to lead the viewer to see beyond things.

"Painting is the unchanging mirror of all that is most beautiful in the universe"
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, aka Ylipe

I like observing nature, people and all things that surround me ; despite the passing of time, everything remains a source of wonder and emotion for me. Always craving for new things to learn about or discover, I wish I were born during the Italian Renaissance, a "magical" period where everything was possible...

My main sources of inspiration are :

NATURE

#sky #nebulas #constellations #northernlights #birds #feathers #sea #water #waves #sailingships #coralreefs #jellyfish #flowers #giverny #nature #asia #japanesegardens

The sky;
Birds, whose stylised feathers dress most of my paintings in the collection "Evanescence". Birds have always been fascinating me for their beauty, but above all the symbolism related to them. If I had to keep only two books, it would be : "The Conference of Birds" by Farid-ud-Din'Attar and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach;
The Sea: waves, sailings boats, coral reefs

ORIENTAL ART

I particularly like :

Asian Art and above all japanese gardens;
the curves and scrolls of arabic calligraphy, even though I do not have the chance to understand their meaning beyond the strong emotions experienced.

MUSIC

Music is essential to my creative process. I'm particularly fond of:

Jazz, Blues and Soul:
- Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, Nathalie Cole, Nat King Cole,...
- Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, Emilia, Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, Molly Johnson, Stacey Kent, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Sara Lazarus, Lisa Ekdahl, Youn Sun Nah, Sophie Milman, Jane Monheit, Caecilie Norby, Renee Olstead, Jan Eisen, Fredrika Stahl, Susan Werner, Lizz Wright, Ruthie Foster, Amy Winehouse, Ruthie Foster, Nikki Yanofsky, Patti Austin, Eela Henderson, Lillie Mc Cloud, Diana Panton, Olivia Ong, Rebecca Binnendyk, Patti Austin, Lucy Thomas,...
Classical Music:
- Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Gioachino Rossini, Frédéric Chopin, Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Tomaso Albinoni, Felix Mendelssohn,...
- Isaac Stern, Anne Gastinel,, Sarah Chang, Itzhak Perlman, Claire Oppert, Hélène Grimaud, Katrin Scholz, Nigel Kennedy, Glen Gould, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Frank Braley, Krystian Zimerman, Yundi Li,...
- Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Roberto Alagna,....

To welcome you in my universe, here is a medley of one of my favourite jazz Singer's songs: Eva Cassidy (Source: Youtube)

READING

Romantic poetry, which particularly appeals to me because of its vibrant tribute to the beauty of nature and to simple things, of the passionate feelings it conveys, often half-way between hope and despair, of the existential issues it raises through the use of metaphors and surrealist images (Alphonse de Lamartine, Charles Baudelaire, Théodore de Banville, Paul Verlaine, Victor Hugo, William Wordsworth, John Keats, William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley,…), persian poetry (Farid-ud-Din'Attar, Khalil Gibran,...) and also Pablo Neruda's poems ;
Books concerned with astronomy : despite not being a scientist, I have a fascination for nebulae and constellations, the cosmos in general, and a true passion for works by Hubert Reeves, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Gregory Benford, Michio Kaku and André Brahic on these topics ;
Books concerned with symbolism, philosophy, spirituality, mythology and ancient civilisations, as well as with the origins of humanity (Yves Coppens, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Joël de Rosnay, Pascal Pick, Erick Seinandre, Richard Leakey,...) ;
Sci-Fi and futurist novels particularly by Jules Verne, legends and extra-ordinary stories by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, novels by Bernard Werber, Denis Guedj, Aldous Huxley (Brave New World,...), George Orwell (1984, Animal Farm,...) ;
Spiritual novels like those of Daniel Meurois, metaphorical and philosophical stories by Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull), and also most of Oscar Wilde's novels (particularly The Picture of Dorian Gray)...

BIBLIOGRAPHY

You will find below a non-exhaustive list of books whose genre has been nourishing my inspiration, imagination and creativity for years. These works constitute a large part of my sources of inspiration, when I explain 'the story behind my paintings' on my website and/or social networks:

Literature (poetry, quotes, tales and novels):