“The ray, I appreciate it for its lightness; La belle otarie, for its sensuality, le gorille is my confidant; le mouton my mascot … “explains Pascale Benéteau while making the tour of her animal sculptures in terracotta or in bronze.

“I do not work the clay, it’s the clay that makes me work”

Since Pascale Benéteau discovered sculpture only four years ago, this artistic expression has become a real passion for her.

And when asked from where this interest in animals came from, she simply admits “to find them much more accessible than humans “. Her first sculpture, a dog’s head. Her dog. ” It’s a lot more detailed than what I’m doing now. The curves are now smoother, the grain more polished”, She said, adding that “her challenge is to give an expression to her sculpture by purifying it as much as possible”. And it seems that her bet is reached since it has been noticed by many gallery owners and exhibits in particular at the gallery Gavart in Paris 8th. She was also selected last November by the Society of French Artists to present her sculptures at the Grand Palais, Paris.

Japanese Influences

If Pascale Benéteau is a very young sculptor, she has been painting for many years. Oil, Indian ink, Japanese pigments and watercolor. Some canvases rub shoulders with her sculptures at La Galerie. In Giverny. ” I lived seven years in Japan, and this is where I discovered pottery. I liked the contact with the clay. And in pottery as in sculpture, the works come directly from the hands “. Her Japanese influences are found in her canvases: Bamboo, painting on silk or framing in the shape of folding screen, rollers. On my return from Japan, I realized that this culture really influenced my work.

World traveler, the artist has also lived in black Africa, South Africa, India, Denmark, influences that are rooted in her work.

Humble and reserved, Pascale Benéteau does not consider herself an “artist”. “I’m self-taught and I work instinctively, in painting and sculpture. I do not really have any artistic influence, I’m not in a current. I have a special connection to what I create and I do it above all for me, “she explains, looking at her sheep, her mascot.

Faced with the camera, the painter-sculptor slips among her animals. We show her the pictures. “I trust you, choose the one you prefer.” Artist, no doubt, just a little simpler than others.

By Béatrice Cherry-Pallat in Le Démocrate of April 14, 2010