Valérie Auriel

Painter Valérie Auriel invites us, through her colourful and botanical paintings, into her exotic, imaginary, enchanting, and poetic world.

In her work, she explores the emotional bond that human beings weave with the plant world. The language of flowers and plants tells an intimate story, a dream of a marvellous nature. Valérie Auriel enjoys working in series. One of her most recent series focuses on close-up portrayals of orchids. They evoke the paradox of a nature recreated by humans under glass: beneath domes of metal and glass, gardeners invent a perfect, colourful, and welcoming jungle, free of dangerous animals — a kind of lost paradise, much like those imagined by Douanier Rousseau or Paul Gauguin.

In the continuation of this work, the artist is currently developing a new series dedicated to artificial flowers, reflecting on our longing for nature that leads us to recreate a vegetal universe out of plastic and fabric. Her pieces, often bathed in a soft, golden light emanating from the background, echo a natural environment that is becoming increasingly rare and precious.

Trained at the Ateliers Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Valérie Auriel uses and combines a wide variety of techniques. Her works are created in oil and acrylic, and are sometimes enriched with collage.