Martine Besnard

An artist in love with life "Without dreams, there can be no day-to-day creation. Martine Besnard discovered this gift, which others call talent, at an early age, when she was making things. Her nimble hands have always been able to create, invent and build. An enlightened self-taught artist, she learned the fundamentals of a complex art from Christiane Chapon, Master Sculptor and Bronzemaker. During her four years of training in Bordeaux, she was imbued with the same emotion and energy expressed in the past by Paul Belmondo and Alain Paoli. She then met Paul Leuquet, a writer, engraver and painter, with whom Martine took drawing lessons followed by long discussions on art. From one chance meeting to the next, she perfected her practice, because her aim was to see her work in bronze. Clay and lost wax were the natural choice. Martine draws her inspiration from real or imaginary forms, and creates the right moment for the work in progress to emerge from the modelling process. From the clay to the mould, from the mould to the wax, then back to the pot mould, right through to the molten bronze, at each of these inescapable stages, she imposes her touch, her artist's touch, to achieve the finished work.