Valérie Auriel

Valérie Auriel paintings follow in the footsteps of oneiric and poetic figuration. The world she paints is that of dreams, of the subconscious and of archetypes. Her pictorial approach revolves around creating pictures that can be read in many ways, and provoking uncertainty. She creates figurative paintings, but they are certainly not illustrative. She aims to shape an atmosphere that can be interpreted in different ways.

On canvas or on paper, the artist explores the ambiguities inherent to representation. She intertwines different techniques to reveal the complexity of the visible world and evokes the invisible. She use acrylic, oil, charcoal, collages… She mixes the script, leaving some areas only alluded to by light touches, unexpected spots of colour, superimposed layers of glazes, or on the contrary, drawing with deliberate precision a hand, a face, a small detail…

For a few years, she has been working on the theme of forests – temperate or tropical. These offer a field of exploration extremely rich. This is the place of vegetal profusion: all kinds of trees, ferns, and grasses intertwine in a sometimes-stifling atmosphere. It is also the location of the mystery: behind the foliage are hidden birds, mammals, and reptiles... The fact that these tiny or dangerous lives are invisible to the walker provokes his curiosity and anxiety. Finally, forest is a symbolic space. This is the location of trials that encourage the lost hero to excel, to overcome his fears to become stronger.