Meskar is a French artist, born in 1960. Since her childhood, she has devoted her free time to music and learning to paint. Her first contact with art is related to her grandfather, who lived in Paris and painted too. There was no shortage of an opportunity to show her the most prestigious museums in the capital…, she has a marvellous memory of her visit to the Louvre, she was 10 years old.

How did you start your artistic career?

I started working in the field of finance and my work as a private management consultant allowed me to get even closer to the art world.  And then life sometimes reserves surprises…, and painful events opened my eyes. After 30 years of rigorous work in management, the time had finally come for me to get back to basics: painting, expressing my feelings, escaping in color, sharing my emotions and welcoming those who watch my work. In short, live and share! So I made a 180-degree turn to live today fully this passion, installed in Périgord, source of serenity and inspiration.

Could you describe the style of your painting?

It is a contemporary painting, a mixture of figurative and abstract (a «figurative-abstract» style?) only emotion is the guide!

After doing some acrylic work, I quickly turned to oil, which allows me to work more easily what I like: fades, glazes, transparencies, light. The work of matter, mixtures, dilutions…, the oil hardens only very slowly which allows me to constantly adapt and at the moment my emotions, my gaze on the canvas.

What is your creative process?

I let my feelings guide my brush, without any priori on the end result … my favorite subject is nature, rich in its colors and contrasts, this environment that reserves at every moment so many beautiful surprises, and of course, you will not fail to notice, the sky, the clouds, this «space» with which I maintain a very special relationship, even privileged. I never tire of looking at it at any time of the day or night in its many aspects and its never identical color palette that moves me to the depths of my being.

The image of nature comes to me as a kind of inner and poetic music full of emotions! I like to say that I am a kind of sponge that captures the impressions, the emotions, that my observation of nature gives me. These feelings naturally emerge on the canvas, in various atmospheres (sometimes nostalgic, sometimes colorful), compositions where light is always very present, and which combine both an aesthetic research and above all a boundless creative imagination.

Where do you find your motivation? 

Imaginary or real landscapes, seaside or forests, plains and countryside, I draw my inspiration and my emotions from the chance of my travels, in what nature offers me the most beautiful: its lights, its colors and it’s contrasts.

Indeed, nature is for me an exceptional and inexhaustible source of inspiration! My paintings always refer to the air, the earth, the water, the wind, all that nature offers us of surprising and wonderful an open scenario that invites you to let go, to feel emotions, to let the unconscious travel and the dream to become reality…

What artists inspire you?

I have always loved the Impressionists, such as Paul Cézanne, Claude Monnet, who certainly guided my work, but also Edward Hopper, representative of American realism, and the bright skies of William Turner, not to mention one of our contemporaries whose paintings seduce me and always amaze me as much, I want to talk about Pierre Soulages and his use of the reflections of the black color.

What is your perception of current artistic trends?

There are now more and more artists on the art market with very different styles, which is basically a good thing in itself in terms of choice, even if as a result it becomes more and more complicated to exhibit in good conditions. Indeed, it is important to point out that the organizers of fairs are very heterogeneous and do not all attach the same importance to the quality of the work offered to them, hence exhibitions themselves very diverse in terms of the quality of works exhibited but also in terms of public, sometimes true art lovers, sometimes simple «Sunday walkers» or curious who are not at all interested in art or even the work presented to them.

We must therefore be more and more vigilant about our choice of exhibition venues, and arbitrate between regional «small rooms», more «prestigious» exhibitions and exhibitions via art galleries. Each type of exhibition has advantages and disadvantages but also a very different cost (and sometimes not always completely justified), so remains to the artist who exposes to determine what he seeks above all…

Even if the laws seem to be moving in the right direction on this in France, we still have a long way to go on this point, so that the spirit of cultural diffusion prevails among the greatest number in the face of interests, sometimes alas strictly financial.

What’s your next project?

Above all, keep what drives me today: the pleasure of painting, the curiosity to test new techniques, exchanges with certain artists with whom I maintain very cordial and friendly links, and of course continue my participation in exhibitions where I can explain my work on the one hand and on the other hand collect impressions of the public who observe my paintings.

The year 2020 was a special vintage (many exhibitions having been cancelled … effect Covid 19) but I want to remain positive and optimistic, Let’s bet that the second half of 2020 and the year 2021 bring us a lot of artistic happiness!!!