Lucie Lith: Paintings With A Dialogue

Hello Lucie. Thank you for doing this interview! Let's start at the beginning, how did your art career get started?

I have always been guided by creation. As a child, I drew. As a teenager, I started writing poems, then texts and novels as an adult. I made my first collage in 2008 from the front pages of an old newspaper.

I would say that's where it all started, but in retrospect, I think it was just the next logical step in my journey.

Soon, I added text and paint to my work. I started to create my own images that I printed, tore and glued on wood or canvas. Naturally, I started creating my own stencils and then started to use to spray paint.

How does a creative session work? Where do you start?

I create a lot of it in my head! I can imagine paintings and often write sentences that come to me from images I see or read. This inspiration can also come from things I've lived and from emotions I've felt.

I will then go to my computer and start with an image, more often than not, a photograph. I rework it, add color and text and then turn it into a "stencil" that's suitable for painting. 

I then have my "digital work" which will serve as a rough draft for my painting. Next, I create different layers using the stencil. I cut out and select all my colors (a very important phase) and I finally start painting. 

At what point do you consider a work to be finished? 

Logically, the work is finished when my canvas looks like the digital mock-up. That is to say, when all the layers of stencil have been applied and the small retouches made. But the real end of the creative process is marked by the varnishing phase and then the destruction of my stenciled frames. 

It is from this moment that the work is completely finished. It becomes original and unique. I never reproduce the same work twice (except for very rare exceptions). Contrary to other stencil artists, I'm against the very principle of using a stencil more than once. This is just how I work. 

For what reason does the text play such a big role in the composition of your paintings?

Writing and painting are part of me, part of my journey. When I create, I tell a story and each of my works has a meaning, a message. Words come naturally to the images. They both define and complete the work.

As I paint a lot of portraits, the words illustrate their stories, evoking the thoughts and the life paths of my subjects. It's in keeping with the idea that we all keep a trace of our experiences and encounters, like an accumulation of stories and words - or also of "evils" for that matter.

What synergies do you see between poetry, literature and painting?

For me, these are all similar and complementary disciplines. They call upon emotion to touch the listener/viewer. One can be moved by a poem, just as they can be by a painting. 

Above all, a poem, a piece of literature, or a painting, all tell a story. The story if that of its author as well as that of its subject. We see and feel different things depending on what we read or what we look at when it comes to a painting. 

This is also the reason why I find it particularly interesting to combine writing and painting in my work.

Which artists inspire you? 

I admire Banksy's minimalist and striking style, the strength of his messages, as well as Jef Aerosol's works and the finesse of their details. 

But my influences are rooted in modern art and literature as well, especially in the poetry of Baudelaire, Verlaine and Apollinaire. 

My favorite painter is Gustav Klimt. There is so much beauty, symbolism, and sensuality in his paintings. I love works that tell stories and Klimt's are full of them, as well as Chagall's with their incredible colors, and Mirò's too. Not to mention Nikki de Saint Phalle, as I'm just as fascinated by her as her in work. 

Do you work on commission? Can you tell us about one of the most memorable custom orders you've had?

I work on commission under certain conditions. I have to stick to the idea that the collector has of the future painting and this is not always easy. In general, a client sees one of my paintings and wants "the same" but with a portrait of their family or children, which never works.

In order to work on commission, I have to start with a photograph that inspires me, representing the subject(s) in a situation that allows me to tell their story.

A few years ago, a friend of mine commissioned me to create portraits of her children. I asked her to provide me with photographs of her children that she liked. She sent me a lot of portraits, including class photos. It didn't work because the children were static, with frozen smiles, lacking spontaneity and naturalness. 

I couldn't create anything that was satisfying to my taste. Time passed. Regularly, she would check in to see if I wanted photos from a professional photographer, but it still didn't work. 

And then one day, she posted a photo of her children sleeping on her Instagram account. A slightly "stolen" picture that for me, embodied innocence and dreams. I asked her to send me the photo, I worked on it and as a matter of course, I created the work in a few minutes. She had been waiting for her commission for two years. Sometimes you just have to trust in your own process.