Artistde Gail, Francoise

Artist Years1951-living

Artist NationalityFrench

TitleWaiting

Yearca. 1980

MediumPainting > Oil

DimensionsCanvas: 24 X 20 inches

Accession NumberRC1933

NotesFrancoise de Gail was born in Brittany in 1951. After studying at the École des Arts Déco in Paris (ENSAD), she studied at the École Supérieure de Design, d'Art Graphique et d'Architecture Intérieure (known as ESAG Penninghen), a school for the graphic art on the premises of the Academie Jullian, in Paris, where, in 1976, she graduated with honors in graphic design.

She worked for a while in an advertising agency as a “roughman” before devoting herself to painting.

In her own words:
“A country girl, close to the earth, nature, and animals, I lived for 17 years on an Atlantic island. Seventeen years of island winters, punctuated by the exhilarating violence of storms, the power of the elements, and the earthly forces expressed by the raging sea. A Garden of Eden where the harshness of island life anchors us in a magnificent and violent reality, where we feel alive, an integral part of nature. It was a powerful and magical experience, during which, with humility, I felt deeply connected to the earth.”
“Whether or not I classify it as a "Modern Primitive," "Naïve," or labeled a painter of poetic reality, my work is simply an expression of the life force I feel intensely: light, colors, shapes, a simple search for harmony in an impossible world.”
 
From Dominique Vergnon , Art critic for the periodicals L'Œil and L'Amateur d'Art:
Françoise de Gail was born in the land of elves dancing in the heather. In her cradle, a Breton fairy placed what is essential for success: willpower, a love of work, and intelligence. Accepted into the Arts Décos school, she followed the triumphant path of true artists: the Académie Jullian (ESAG-Penninghen).
The naive tempts and absorbs her. She responds with a festival of marvelous paintings. Then, cars and horses seduce her. Her taste for "Belle Époque Speed" is the key to her success. Finally, the land of dreams and exploits, Japan, welcomes her, and she returns its smile. A promising dialogue develops between them. Françoise's painting is entirely in her image: a skillful composition of reason and madness, a careful blend of strength and grace, a gentle blend of fire and ice.
The image, in short, both perfect and constantly unfinished, of the female artist. She has the gift, one might say, of making reflections of magic glide over the wisdom of things. Like shiny, smooth lacquers that attract the hand, her paintings, gleaming and polished, capture the eye. With this simple air, they direct our certainties toward questions to which the artist alone holds the key. Her brush sow’s grains of mischief in beds of color that increase our admiration. Flowers, cars, architecture, characters who tame these tangible signs of a joy of living whose charm and fullness each canvas renews, like so many radiant mornings that dawn.