Certain people are born with a taste for words, for saying them and delighting in them; others are born to hear notes, to play or whisper them; others instinctively smell the texture of wood, the forms that it can take on when you assemble different parts.

Marie-Pascale Jacqmin sensed the irrepressible taste of colour very early in her life. It was an obvious vocation: clear, addictive, and constantly reaffirmed and strengthened (« Colour is my maternal language »). At six years old, she was already taking painting classes. Later, it would be the French School of Beaux-Arts.

Her fascination for tones and the harmonies that they create is undeniable. She lives and breathes a deep-rooted passion for them. In her work as an artist. In her daily life. She does not see colours; she sees in colour. Everything and continually. In her paintings of course, but also in the clothes she wears, the objects around her, even in food (« I always pay attention to the combinations of colours on my plate »).

She has fed this passion at every step of her creative and formative development. She worked as a colourist for the textile industry, as an interior designer, and as a stylist of a collection of household textiles. As a buyer for a newborn clothing label, she went on a number of trips to China. She was struck by the variety of shapes, forms and colours she saw there. India, where she also travelled, similarly had a huge influence on her approach to painting.

During her professional years, when she used her talents as a visual artist, Marie-Pascale never stopped thinking about design and painting. Or about ways to continue perfecting her technique, her « savoir-faire ». Marie-Pascale took up her paintbrushes once more, never to let go of them again. « At that time, I wanted my paintings to tell stories », she remembers. « It was about still lives, and life drawing ». She was invited to exhibit her work very quickly. Throughout France, then in Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Spain, Belgium …

She always uses the same technique. First the sketches, then paint testing, and then the colours (« much like the time when I had my styling agency »). This method determines the form that her paintings will take. Marie-Pascale then paints her canvases, forgetting the sketches, choosing only a selection of colours that she is happy with. Her style ? It oscillates between the figurative and the abstract, the painting for themselves. Her influences include Matisse, Nicolas de Staël… » Perhaps Dufy », she adds.

Marie-Pascale works in cycles. Without neglecting painting on canvas – which she continues to do in series – today she is considering other textures to work with, such as glass. « I would like to explore the possibilities of that material » she explains. » I know that with glass I can play with colours ». Indeed…

Translated from Rodolphe Pays