Catherine Pugeat

Artistic approach of Catherine Pugeat, the artist of the Movement.

After going through the pain of the loss of the loved one, after having felt deeply how precious, fragile, but also inexorable the movement of life is, I chose to no longer suffer, to act so as not to suffer, I chose to move forward despite what I lost, I chose to trust Life. I chose to paint (probably would it be fairer to say that painting chose me?) To be in movement, to be in Life, if not to stay in Life.

I didn't really know why but I felt good. It took me a long practice, a long experience, for me to finally grasp the deeper meaning. I ended up realizing that the act of painting allowed me to find silence, and that in this inner silence I could feel, listen to the movement of life. Suffering, sorrow, nostalgia for the past, fear of the future no longer disturbed my present. There were only the colors, the material, the canvas, the form, the energy, the gesture. I found myself totally at peace. With all my senses engaged, I then felt centered, unified. I could then paint the movement. Painting movement has become "my silence", my unity and my artistic mission.

Would the act of painting be a place of silence, a place of encounter with the vital movement but also with oneself? Could the movement only be perceived in the Inner Silence? Can seeing this movement fix me (us)? I try to grasp it, to make it visible. And it is in an explosion of energy, of joyful life, full of music, dance, colors, light, contrast that I question him, that I dissect him, that I question him, in his palpitations, its undulations, its beats, its vibrations, its pulsations.

I feel the absolute need to make it emerge, to tear it away from nothingness, to create a visual shock, to look at it, listen to it, to the point of confusing it with my own silence.

Artistic practice

From this observation, from this questioning, I turned my artistic practice towards abstraction, towards a non-figurative "necessary" and assumed, after having had a period where the representation of movement went through the figurative, with bodies dancing, suffering, moving.

Today, I am part of an abstract expressionism, in which "action painting" and "colorfield painting" occupy an important place, with a part of the unforeseen, of chance, as in any act of creation: bright colors, "daring" associations, body language, are my plastic identity, my signature.

I mainly use large formats, 80x80, 100x100 cm, 110x90 cm, often square shapes which symbolize stability, earth, matter, concrete. I also work on small formats, I create triptychs and diptychs, but it is especially on large surfaces that my creativity and my gestures are best expressed. I also use rectangular formats which suit me more and more.

To register the movement on the canvas, I use large knives, brushes, rags, sometimes my fingers, tools that allow me to loosen my gesture as much as possible, then to assert my touches in the search for an aesthetic balance. , sometimes from an imbalance, then I choose the surfaces, the shapes, the lines, I organize them, I choose the colors, the material effects.

All these actions translate and express the intentions, the pre-existing ideas on the canvas, (the vital movement of beings, light, living cells, nature, dance, matter, ...) or non- intentions. My final gesture is free, spontaneous, assertive, I spread life-matter with the same pleasure, the same sensuality, as the child who kneads the sand ...

Oil painting is my favorite medium, its smoothness, its flexibility, its sensuality totally seduce me. I mix it up a little. I spread it out with thickness, I also make material collages (pulp, sand, cardboard, fabric ...) to amplify the thickness to create "accidents" on the canvas. My palette is nourished by bright, lightly mixed colors ... I feel like a “colorist” soul that reveals the vital movement.

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