A rebrousse-poil - Chantal Quéhen

You enter the workshop, hesitant, manipulating objects here and there, familiar tools: table, stool, press, drawers and shelving overflowing with colorful materials, ink, pencils, brushes of all kinds.

A period of absorption.

You have no precise idea, no subject, just a desire to "take possession" of the space. You notice a bottle of India ink. You choose between dozens of different hair brushes, a flat hog hair bristle brush about 5cm wide, and another rather fine, with a rounded head.

You start your brush tests on some square paper, 25x25cm. You let go, the gesture and the tool create their own forms: a glissando. You let yourself be surprised by the traces of the brush.
Little by little the strokes take the shape of signs, you punctuate with lines and dots. Your hands guide you in this almost unpredictable creative impulse.

In hindsight, you "identify" these incognito figures with words.


Chantal Quéhen

Chantal Quéhen
was born in the Pas-de-Calais, France.
After a poetic encounter with the group "Les Troubadours", she toured France drawing and writing.
In 1970 she moved to Côte d'Ivoire, where she learned the fabric dyeing technique of batik, she frequented the National Institute of The Arts in Abidjan and in 1984 the Academy of Arts of Draguignan in France.
Her travels continued across France, the US, Africa and Brazil. In 1990 she moved to Switzerland, where she explored the techniques of oil, acrylic and other pictorial techniques in several workshops.
In 1996 she studied expressive and artistic mediations in Biel, Geneva and Bordeaux.
In 1998 she opened an expressive and artistic experimental space in Morges VD.
Since 2002 she has lived in her workshop in St Sulpice VD, teaching different forms of visual art, acting as visual presenter in schools, or institutions. She has continued her original approach using ink as the main medium of her works, and also makes use of heterogeneous materials (wire, ceramics, cardboard) or photography and installation.
  • Artist: Quéhen, Chantal
  • Published: 2015
  • Examples: 50
  • Genre: Illustration
  • Pages: 38
  • Width: 205 mm
  • Height: 200 mm
  • Depth: 10 mm
  • Weight: 190 g
  • Printing method: Letterpress / digital
  • Language: French
  • L-121

  • Availability: In Stock

40.00 CHF

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