Regard d’Afrique, 2018

Sylvaine Merlet  

Born in 1977 in Isère, Sylvaine Merlet developed a passion for COLOR at a very young age. After four years of drawing lessons, she created her first oil paintings on canvas at the age of 12 or 13. She naturally pursued studies in APPLIED ARTS, obtaining a BTS (Advanced Vocational Diploma) in DESIGN and further training in 3D MODELING.

Drawn to computer graphics, she completed her studies with training in desktop publishing in Lyon, and then worked in various roles: Marketing Assistant, desktop publishing operator, graphic designer and signage operator.

In 2011, her passion for PAINTING led her to pick up her brushes again.

Since then, she has evolved her work and developed a DEEPLY PERSONAL ARTISTIC APPROACH, where COLOUR and REARDS occupy a central place.

Whether hypnotic or captivating, each painting is an invitation to travel and dream, just waiting to reveal its secrets and tell its story.

Sylvaine Merlet's painting is a journey, a plunge into the visible and invisible layers of the world, where humanity, nature, and the imagination intertwine. Her images are born from a need to express what escapes words: buried emotions, collective memories, the silent bonds that unite beings.

The GAZE is at the heart of his approach. It is a threshold, a passage, a mirror. It is through the GAZE that FRAGILITY, STRENGTH, DOUBT, AND HOPE are expressed.

The figures she paints are not content to be seen: they look back, inviting the viewer to an INTIMATE, ALMOST MEDITATIVE ENCOUNTER.

Each canvas is constructed like a world to be explored.

Beneath the apparent unity emerge fragments, symbols, hidden narratives, like so many layers of thought.

THE WORK REVEALS ITSELF SLOWLY, TO THE ONE WHO ACCEPTS TO LOSE THEMSELVES IN IT, TO LINGER IN IT, TO LET TIME DO ITS WORK.

The COLOUR there is alive, vibrant, sometimes incandescent.

It carries raw emotion, guides the gaze and makes energy flow.

It is breath, pulse, inner movement. Painting then becomes an act of resilience: CONNECTING THE HUMAN TO THE LIVING, THE PRESENT TO ANCIENT MYTHS, THE REAL TO THE IMAGINARY.

In a fragmented world, Sylvaine Merlet's painting opens A SPACE OF RESONANCE, CONTEMPLATION AND DREAMING, where EVERYONE CAN REDISCOVER A FORGOTTEN PART OF THEMSELVES.

Participation in approximately 60 exhibitions - Awards: 9 prizes (including 5 audience awards) whether hypnotic or captivating