«CROISÉE DE REGARDS»

Everywhere I go, I take a sketchbook, brushes and watercolors in my bag. I began drawing on location by sketching actors on stage. I wanted to capture their attitudes, postures and movements. A few years ago, I began to paint artists at work, their creations in-progress and artistic installations. I realized that I painted many artworks that inhabit the places I walk through.

What I like especially is to capture, with brushstrokes, the way they transform the place permanently or fleetingly. One always feels the artist behind the work. One can guess their state of mind if one takes the time to really look at the work. Watercolor allows this. One can also capture the soul of the artist by watching them work. That's what I did, by following a few of them, painting their activity, their habits and their workshop.

This is the origin of the book "Croisée de regards", a project in which I associate my watercolors with my written observations.

You will find in this book watercolors made on-site, from my sketchbooks and loose sheets, as opportunities arose. In these paintings, I quickly try to capture the atmosphere and the light of the moment. Next to these watercolors, texts about the artist at work and artworks. These works transform our vision of the world, amaze us and make us think.

"Croisée de regards" is a chronicle painted and written around artists, works and artistic installations.

With this book, I share my universe with you. Through my eyes, I accompany you in the discovery of an artist you do not know, a work you have never seen or a performance you missed. I wish to convey my passion for art and my interest in space and places in transformation.

I hope that you might enter my watercolors and chronicles to discover your own vision of the world. It will be immersed in the strong colors, light, vibration and movement of watercolor. You will travel from Paris to Chicago, passing through Anish Kapoor, Chiharu Shiota or Alexander Calder not through the picturesque monuments but through sculptures, monumental works and exhibitions.

The book is divided into seven chapters; 75 watercolors are reproduced in all. 47° of them are accompanied by a text article.

The book is in Landscape format to match my usual watercolor layouts. The book’s layout is my own design. I wanted it elegant and “spacious,” to have the best possible reproductions of the watercolors. Ten of them are reproduced as double-page spreads. I chose a watercolor-type paper to get a printed rendering as close as practical to the colors and textures of watercolor.

THE ARTIST

I am Marion Rivolier, painter and scenographer. I spent my childhood and adolescence discovering drawing and painting techniques, copying Japanese or Italian painters, and exploring bodies, space and movement through drawing and painting. I obtained a degree in Visual Arts in 1996 and then I attended the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. I discovered scenography, the art of space, a discipline in perfect harmony with my work as a painter: the dialogue between moving bodies and space. I graduated in scenography in 2000. Since then, I alternate between designing sets for theaters and museums, and painting.

What interests me the most is to grasp the movement and the light on location. Watercolor is for me the richest and most responsive medium, because it allows to go from an intense color to absolute transparency.

I love to be surprised by the pigment that dilutes in water, water that is often not controllable! Watercolor allows me to quickly capture the light, color and movement of a place or action. It's been fifteen years since I left the house without my sktechbook. It is the testament to what touches and interests me.

It is the apple of my eye.

Croisée de Regards