Michèle Coppin
Statement
I was born and raised in Belgium - a small country with a penchant for the absurd, seeped in legends, bathed in the rich art history of Northern Europe, veiled under ever-changing gray skies.
Gray is beautiful and comes in many variations: silver, metal, ash, slate, charcoal, smoke ... discerning them developed my passion for color.
In search of pure bright color however, I traveled to Mexico where I discovered Diego and Frida's saturated and daring color palettes and to India, where on the walls of temples, I encountered reversed paintings on glass: glowing images of bejeweled gods and goddesses, adorned in bright pigments, dancing and meditating under clear surfaces.
Reversed painting goes back to Antiquity, was known to the ancient Chinese and has a long tradition in the folk arts of Eastern Europe and India.
Typically, glass is decorated on the back by unfired paint or gilding.
It took several years to master this technique which starts with details, highlights and shadows, builds backgrounds last and is signed backwards.
I have developed a personal process combining both paint and gold to create images of color and light. The gold leaf which is applied at the end, when the paint is dry, shines through multiple translucent layers of color.
My work is a tangle of figures, baroque patterns, tumbling flower mandalas, inspired by nature, poems, the passage of time.
I invite the viewer to get lost - and found - in warm palettes of gold and pools of soothing color....
Self Portrait In Africa
Mixed media:
Reversed painting (oil) on glass backed with gold, silver or copper leaf.
