Claire Petit

(b. 1963)
The whole of my work reflects two paths, my two egos, which I have almost finished by reconciliating and celebrating with serenity and harmony in my life as a painter. Two parallel directions that I call “People” and “Deep depths”.

Human beings interest me profoundly and remain the source of my inspiration. My subjects are nearly always feminine.

Thus I paint women -always with tenderness-, (mothers, wives, warriors, shy, happy, matronly, in love, collectors, mistresses, androgyns, enigmatics, confidants, lonely or unloved, smokers, those starving for affection, possessives, excessively discrete, strangely ridiculous, complexed, extraverted, lascivious), also paint little girls (lots of them), and even sometimes some entwined lovers.

In this group of paintings, the people usually take over all the space, the background and decor are hardly present and are not important.

Except for those paintings, where little girls are jumping, playing, sleeping, dancing, flying or just standing in large intense and glossy coloured backgrounds - which are part of a recent and endless series created and built like a musical score, a variation on childhood. I call this whole body of work “People”

In parallel, I work on more abstract themes, more dreamlike, seeking some kind of spirituality.

Among others, a series of paintings on the subject of sleep, painted on large surfaces of deep red or deep blue, some series touching upon the subject of duality and another about meditation and introspection.
In this series of paintings, small, more or less asexual people float peacefully in the middle of large spaces, submerged in a universal amniotic liquid. I call them “Deep depths”.

Most of the time I work in oils, using brushes, knives, fingers, stockings, usually painting on canvas….

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