Andrea Graber, Chantal Lallemand

Opening Thursday 16 September 2021 at 6PM
Exhibition from 14 to 25 September 2021

Andrea Graber

Biographie
Andréa Graber vit à Paris. Elle a suivi les séances de pose à La Grande Chaumière. Elle peint à l’huile sur des toiles des images que lui suggère son imaginaire. C’est en fulgurance qu’elle reçoit des formes, des couleurs qui se forment telles les courbes des nuages. Sa peinture est empreinte de poésie, de spontanéité et de fraîcheur. Elle expose du 15 au 25
septembre 2021 à la Galerie Mona Lisa – 32, rue de Varenne- Paris

Chantal Lallemand

Biography
I was born in Gevrey-Chambertin (Bourgogne) , the daughter of a businessman father and a
wardrobe mistress mother. Owing to my father’s profession, I lived all over France as I grew
up. I live today in Normandy, where my family finally settled down in 1975.
I had the good fortune to have a mother with a deeply developed artistic sense. Since she
was both a painter and costume designer, the house was always full of her art. Paintings,
easels, tubes of paint, and brushes were omnipresent throughout the dwelling. She
bequeathed to me several of her passions, including gold-thread embroidery and painting.
My career was characterized by a normal progression based on my professional performance,
since I began as a Registered Nurse, then was promoted successively to Director of a local
nursing home, Regional Director, and finally to the top group of executives of a private
commercial group for many years.
My professional activity was abruptly brought to an end three years ago for reasons of
health. During this period, I felt the need to use painting as a means of expression, and that is
how the collection “Echoes” was born. Rediscovering a passion and creative energy, I decided
to devote myself completely to this art that I had neglected earlier owing to my professional
activity.
I quickly set aside my brush, because I found it frustrating not to feel the paint and canvas
under my touch. I experimented with different techniques for three years and now only paint
with my hands, fingers, and fingernails, working with acrylic paint.
I paint while listening to music, and my technique is subjected to its rhythm. All my work is
based on movement and a compulsion to bring colors to the fore.

I work in different formats, but it is the large canvases that bring me the most satisfaction, because the larger the canvas is, the deeper and more interesting the movement becomes. I
place my canvas on the ground and move around it on my knees.
My painting is abstract and my creativity in synch with my emotions. It is always my emotion that guides my movements when I paint. I experience a particular pleasure when the people who look at my paintings feel my emotion. . .
One day, missing the pleasure of embroidering, I experimented with sewing tiny glass beads onto the canvas, developing the colors of the beads as I had those of my painting. I began by sewing just a few dozen beads and finished, today, with paintings that contain thousands of them (the largest having more than 30,000). For certain paintings, the beads are sewn on one by one in order to produce the desired visual effect, requiring me to spend up to seven months on a single painting! I am often asked why I subject myself to this incredibly painstaking work, when I could simply glue the pearls on. The answer is simple: my goal is to achieve the effect I am seeking while assuring that the complete set of pearls stand the test of time. Moreover, sewing the pearls on allows me to place them securely on parts of the
painting that are in relief.
My canvas is first painted with my hand, before being “dressed up” by these thousands of pearls. The pearls respect the movement of the painting.
In the context of my work, I enjoy experimenting with materials that are out of the ordinary in the world of painting. I may, for instance, mix on my color palette different types of glitter, bread flour, powdered sugar, brown sugar, or sand.
I have the good fortune today to exhibit my paintings in a number of prestigious international venues, in cities like Paris, London, Monaco, New York, Miami, Berlin.