After her presence at the Grand Palais last week, Pascale Benéteau, a painter sculptor, will exhibit at the Galerie Gavart in Paris and then at La Galerie in Giverny. Portrait of this self-taught artist.

Pascale Benéteau has always been touched by art. As a young girl she was already attracted to pencils and painting. And it is naturally that in front of her block, her three brushes and her watercolor box, that one day, art met her. First painting, then sculpture chose her.

It all started in 1977 in Cameroon. Her taste for adventure, the discovery of wide open spaces is developing.

“I started to paint watercolors, but it was in India that the color scheme was offered to me. The harmony, the forms, the magic of the Indian colors have led me on the paths of creation, “she confesses. Then, during her seven years in Japan, Pascale Benéteau was introduced to the particular technique of Japanese painting (Nihon-ga, and Sumi-e) and also to that of pottery, which later led her to sculpture. “In Japan, the techniques are taught strictly and rigorously”.

Seize the thing.

Pascale does not like to talk about her, it is the meetings with people who come to see her works that interest her. “It is a moment of magic, a lively and profound exchange that allows art to be transmitted. Every work is unique, “she adds.

For this timeless artist, out of fashions, in perpetual quest to grasp the thing, sculpture is not speaking hollow, it is never an innocuous encounter. “I speak to the subject, I struggle with it, the exchanges are strong, I seek the balance to better witness what is revealed with my hands”. And the work appears in the movement, the music and the journeys that characterize the singularity of the artist.

Her themes? Terracotta figures and animals, bronzes such as le Bœuf musqué, le Pingouin chic, la Dame assise.

Her paintings? Watercolors and oils retracing her travels in Africa, India, Japan ….

An artist to discover absolutely. Her website? Pascalebeneteau.com

By Evelyne Bertron in Le Courier de Mantes of December 1, 2010