The Camille-Claudel room at l’Estive will host the painting exhibition of the Foix-Culture-Loisirs Association from May 18 to 22.
At the Foix-Culture-Loisirs workshop, we paint like we garden: with patience, meticulousness and a taste for abundance. Every two years, the association exhibits the work carried out by a dozen experienced amateur painters. An anticipated exhibition, which has become over time a popular meeting place for visitors to Fuxées, where both works and artistic trajectories shaped over time are revealed.
This year again, the picture rails of the Olivier-Carol space will host paintings born from two years of collective practice at the Maison des associations, under the direction of Philippe Parage. Varied formats, acrylic, oil, tempera and mixed techniques make up an abundant ensemble, where each participant asserts their own sensitivity while dialoguing with a common theme: “flowery”.
An orientation inspired by two figures with distant universes: Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell. In one, the famous Nymphéas; in the other, a painting shot through with impulses and colorful vibrations. Two parallel views on nature, between contemplation and overflow.
The exhibition also reserves some collective curiosities. A joint work is inspired by the Beatus de Saint-Sever, a medieval manuscript dedicated to the Apocalypse: twelve plates made by several hands make up this fragmented painting. A second creation borrows from the wood engraving techniques of Félix Vallotton, another way of exploring the links between learning and experimentation.
The richness of the ensemble is also due to his taste for technical detours. We discover in particular work around Fayoum painting, these funerary portraits inherited from ancient Egypt, produced here in tempera – egg paint mixed with pigments. A rare, almost archaic practice, which the students have adopted with astonishing precision.
Known above all as a lithographer, Philippe Parage, trained at the Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, pushes his group to break away from habits. His credo: transmit know-how as well as a look. “Let them all become like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci!”, he says with humor, before recalling that art remains first and foremost “an artisanal profession” where technique makes it possible to avoid missteps. His students welcome the demanding but stimulating teaching. “This allows us to venture on the artistic path while feeling supported,” confides one of the participants.
The Foix-Culture-Loisirs workshops are open every Monday, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Maison des associations.
