O-A: What is art to you? Is creating an urge, necessity or maybe an incontournable, essential way of life?
Catherine Guinot: Pictorial practice has gradually become an essential part of my life; more than a means of expression, it’s almost a necessity! All my different kinds of artworks have a story into which you may find your way. Art is everywhere, it’s a way of life, a way of living. It’s not just painting or doing something… It’s existing with consciousness and knowing that even a smile is an art to practice.
O-A: What wouldn’t you do without art? What did you discover, achieve with it?
Catherine Guinot: Art is heart!
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O-A: How do you search for inspiration and themes for your work?
Catherine Guinot: Everything interests and inspires me: sensations, emotions, dreams, press articles, a word, a book, a photo, an exhibition, a multitude of subjects… Of course, in this WHOLE, there is a direction; my senses, my mind, my soul are wired to capture what especially moves me, with a predilection for nature and its beauty.
O-A: Who or what inspired you artistically; a person, artist, event, experience…
Catherine Guinot: I’m inspired by nature, by life experiences. For example, my work on colour stripes originated in a serious sports accident that happened to me. I became a pixelated image, like when a video stream suddenly breaks up and blends the images together. For a suspended time, laying on a bed… I experienced from within the rebuilding of all those vital connections that keep us upright, and so, layer after layer, gestures and colors came together again, rebuilt in vertical harmony… Another time, it was an article on La Réunion Volcano eruption that inspired a series of paintings.
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O-A: What was the most interesting statement you heard about your work?
Catherine Guinot: Silence! It’s very compelling to see people just standing in front of my paintings for a long time, without saying a word… Energy and emotions in the color field with no need to talk, just breathe, travel, feel…
O-A: How has your art changed over time? Why?
Catherine Guinot: My art went from abstraction to a more figurative style. But I work in different styles simultaneously; for example, right now, I’m exploring color stripes and figurative drawing. I’ve been playing with colors since the age of two and at one moment, what is natural becomes more conscious. You want to cultivate a kind of excellency and for each artwork, you prepare yourself to give everything.
I can feel this moment of heightened consciousness when I’m drawing or painting, I dissolve into the creative process to emerge as a whole. I search, and more and more often, it finds me… My quest is to explore and simply pay homage to beauty!
