Cécile Valle

After studying advertising and graphic arts for 6 years, Cécile Valle created a design studio in Toulouse and then in Paris, and carries out projects for communication agencies and companies while continuing her pictorial research. At the same time, she teaches courses in libraries, schools, or cultural centers. She has been exclusively dedicated to painting for 20 years, exhibiting in galleries and various places dedicated to exhibitions in France and abroad.

Intentions

Composition and color are the two fundamental pillars of my pictorial research. My painting is focused on abstract compositions in which I find it important to achieve a graphic balance, unity, and chromatic harmony. In my work as a painter, I am interested in memory which I question through color and material. The memory of the successive layers of paint where each scar, each scratch takes on its full dimension and logic, and where each color retains the repentance of the previous one, nourishes it and takes shape. To inherit to become. I paint forms as pieces of the world in which the strength and fragility perceived in each of us are inscribed.

Creative Process

I initially develop small sketches in notebooks that I call "skeletons" because they are the backbone of my work. I write, I note my impressions, my thoughts, which I attempt to express graphically in my paintings. I also work on studies on paper to advance a bit in color. Once the composition is selected, I prepare my canvas and sketch the structure of my composition with charcoal in a succinct manner. Then, I start to work on my colors and materials. I often use pigments but also acrylic, ink, pencil, oil, etc. I work for a long time on a painting, I return to it many times, I let it rest, I reflect, painting gives this necessary time. My inspiration comes from poetry, literature, but also from the landscapes (urban and rural) that surround me daily or during stays and travels, which serve as a support for my introspective and contemplative research.