Paris autrement – Scène de vie urbaine figurative, 2008

Christiane Dumon  

I was brought up to paint from an early age, visiting museums from my early childhood and adolescence... from the classics to the most modern of the time, Renoir, Picasso, Hartung, de Stael, among others! I took drawing and painting lessons at the same time, but I wasn't allowed to study fine art.

I studied for food and, as a free woman, I had children. But I never put aside my work as an artist, I always had a charcoal in my hand. It was when I arrived in Paris to take my children to school that I resumed these activities with greater intensity, going to the Grande Chaumière and another studio. That's how I had my first exhibitions. I've always worked in oils and it's men, women and portraits that interest me; I always need someone alive on my canvases. I steal them, I capture them, I like the light, I like the composition... I always start with a drawing to see what's essential, to make it my own and then I create.

When I moved to the Brittany region, I discovered another setting and did some landscapes, but I missed the characters. My sensitivity and my anger made me stick to the news and the demonstrations took over. There are so many characters!

I teach drawing because I think it's the ba-ba, to learn to look, to see where the light comes from, to draw what you see and not what you know. Construction, the golden ratio... all on a large format, so that the gesture is not held back. I love colours, I create them, compose them, crush them, dose them, and whatever my environment, as soon as I'm free in spirit I rush into painting... the house can wait, the grass can grow, the rain can fall, I paint, I enjoy.