Anne Baudequin: A Picturesque Walk Through The Seasons

Hello Anne! Let's go back even further and talk about how your story first began...

I have always taken the time to admire landscapes as a break from everyday life. From my first paintings at the age of fifteen, I automatically depicted landscapes. 

I attended an art school wherein my studies confronted me with other practices of plastic arts, but did not divert me from my passion for landscape. On the contrary, it was reinforced on the banks of the Loire River near Orléans where I used to come back on weekends, at my parents' home, to explore the infinite play between the sky and the river.

Established in Haute-Loire for its landscapes and its heritage, I have been a restorer of old paintings for twenty years in the service of Historic Monuments and Classified and Controlled Museums. 

This profession has allowed me to intimately know paintings in their materiality. I have worked with paintings dating back to the 16th century and painting from today.  It is a privilege, a rare experience, to be able to hold in one's hands and under one's brush, the works of painters such as Guy François, Sébastien Bourdon, Félix Ziem, Armand Guillaumin, Maximilien Luce or Abdallah Benanteur.

What/who are your artistic influences and inspirations? 

Passionate about landscape painting, I naturally turned to the landscape painters of the 19th century - the watercolors of John Constable and Turner, the studies in Italy by Jean Baptiste Corot. However, to the dramatic tension of the romantic representations of landscape, I prefer the realistic poetry of the works of Sisley and Pissarro. I also admire the synthetic vision of Albert Marquet.

How does a creative session with Anne Baudequin play out?

Whether it is while walking in search of a motif or seen from my studio, inspiration comes to me from a happy conjunction of the elements. A cloudy mass, a light, mists provoke in me an imperious need to paint. After a quick sketch on the canvas to set up the composition, I paint with impatience. One must not lose that initial emotion. 

I need to keep the fragile balance between a great concentration in the observation and release that are necessary to give freedom to the brush. The pleasure of painting lies in this game of control and improvisation. 

What is your relationship with the canvas?

I attach great importance to the materiality of my works. At a time when art is most often discovered through reproductions, it is important to pay attention to the quality and beauty of the material of an original work of art, which gives it its unique and precious character and its longevity.

It starts with the choice of canvas. I only paint on linen canvasses with a tight weave and a slightly irregular grain. The quality of the canvas directly influences the artist's touch and remains very visible, contributing to the identity of the work. I prepare and coat it myself with a white preparation (as the impressionist painters did) and then it's perfectly adapted to my "alla prima" painting technique.

I only use oil paint for the beauty of its hard and shiny material, which keeps with precision the trace of the brush. It will stand the test of time, becoming more beautiful, because it is a living material. Little by little, it acquires transparencies as it approaches the enamel.

I also apply a varnish which protects the work by guaranteeing its durability but also magnifies the oil painting by bringing out its brilliance, its transparency and its contrasts. All these elements allow me to express myself not only through the image but also through the medium.

You are particularly attached to your region (Auvergne) and its landscapes that change with the seasons. Why is that? 

I chose to live and paint in the Haute-Loire for its contrasting landscapes that are both soft and harsh. The Monts du Velay have been shaped by volcanism, but with time, erosion, vegetation and the imprint of man have erased any disturbing and threatening character. 

The sky participates in this softness. If above our head it has nothing to envy by the intensity of its blue to the sky of the south, it takes vaporous pinkish tones to the horizon. As if the pozzolanic red earth that tints the meadows also impregnates the atmosphere.

On the high plateaus with a harsh climate of the Mezenc Massif, swept by the winds, one is seized by the immensity of the pastures. One's gaze reaches infinity, until clouds and mists merge with the mountains. One feels the solitude and the power of the elements.

In the manner of Monet, the variations in time and weather inspire you...

It's not a deliberate choice, unlike Claude Monet, there's no premeditation or desire on my part to create series. My house overlooks the Monts du Velay and the gorges of the Loire.

Every day, at any time of day, I'm fascinated by the ever-changing landscape and it triggers an irrepressible urge to paint. This intimate relationship with the subject allows me to capture its subtle and infinite atmospheric varieties. It has naturally become my main subject. Each of my canvases represents the moment when the unexpected beauty of the light transforms the familiar landscape and calls me to contemplate it.

Do you work in watercolour, which would seem to lend itself well to your subject?

Rather than watercolour, I work in watercolour gouache, which suits my impetuous painting temperament better. I use it when travelling and for sketching.

However, as I'm always looking for more precision, I prefer oil, which doesn't betray me. The tone doesn't change when it dries. However, as with watercolour, I play with the white background of my canvas. It appears in reserve almost everywhere and in transparency in the skies. I only work in freshness and in my finished canvases there always remains the spontaneity of the gesture without return.