Francois Nielly now lives in Paris, but was born in Marseille. Her father was an architect and is said to be where she received her sense of space and construction shown in her work. With over twenty years of artistic experience, her work screams with color, sensuality, movement, and freedom. Check out her site Françoise Nielly or a short vid here.
Francois Nielly paints large scale referencing only black and white photographs. She has an incredible eye for light and shadow. As well as the capability to bring bright and vivid color into each piece. Her huge broad strokes seem rough and far from realistic. But with a step back, you are much closer to the subject with her approach than with most other more photo realist approaches. She paints as large as 78 x 25 inches. I fell in love with her work at first sight. I was always taught when trying to put a figure onto paper that it must have a rough fluidity about it. The more overworked and detailed a figure is, the less it seems to be real. Her style is a prime example of that school of thought at work. It is hard to find the contour of a face or the bridge of a nose but it works so well that way.
These are paintings and I'm sure if Nelly was asked if she was an illustrator or a painter she would choose the latter. But that being said, I would totally include her work in the field of illustration. She uses paint, but she is still putting an image from life, to a photo, further into each carve of her knife, with her own perspective and vision. I'd say thats illustration.
These are really unique. Thanks for sharing. I agree with your line, "The more overworked and detailed a figure is, the less it seems to be real"-something I learned in my figure drawing class.
ReplyDeleteThis really caught my attention (partly because of the neon colors haha) and partly because it's so different from earlier posts. It's interesting how the faces are composed. Usually, when I think of illustration, I think of contour-y line drawings, sketches, and what not, with harder edges. Nelly's brushstrokes, on the other hand, seem rather gestural and it's cool to see how placing certain colors on top of and next to each other create shapes and shadows. Using color to show form and light vs. shadow is something I struggle with, so thanks for introducing me to a new source of inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI also thought your argument about painter vs. illustrator was interesting and brought up some, I suppose, debatable points. I'm still confused over these fine lines between painters and illustrators. I think you are right about the artist illustrating a person by "putting an image from life, to a photo, further into each carve of her knife, with her own perspective and vision." But then I go back and argue with myself about what illustration really means. I think I'd feel better about calling this illustration if these paintings were used to communicate something for a constructive purpose. So to me, at this point in my thought tangent, she is a painter. Ahh, but I'll probably change my mind right after I post this too.
Pardon my spelling. It's 2 am. I meant Nielly. :)
ReplyDeleteThe more I see paintings that are done with Painting Knife the more it makes me want to try to use one too the next time I paint. I always loved the affect it brings to a painting. Anyways I really like these, she really captures expressions of people in a different way, and the use of colors is just wonderful, it makes me giddy. She really does know know how to use a knife. Anyways, painting I always see as another form of illustrating, cause you are technically drawing, when I paint I treat it the same way as if I was doing a picture on the computer, it’s just done with a different tool be it a knife or a paint brush or whatever, my tool is a tablet pen, is that not illustrating? yeeess’em. It’s like saying using markers isn’t illustrating and going around calling it “markering” or something. If you are making a picture shouldn’t anything fall into drawing/illustrating by the way you use the tool. Anywho, I cant stop looking through her gallery, thanks muchly for showing her work to us.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on what Ashley has stated: When I said that I think I wouldn't consider Nielly an illustrator, and would more so consider her a painter, I was not defining her by the tools she was using. I am completely aware that you can use different tools to illustrate something. What I do believe, and what I meant to come across to say, is that this work is more along the lines of fine art.
ReplyDeleteWhile these are catchy, or kitsch, I don't quite think these paintings fall under illustration. Pop Art, sure, but the portraits lack any sort of character narrative, which would be evident in an illustration of this sort.
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ReplyDeleteGreat post, and I'm glad it's spurring some discussion!
ReplyDeleteI think debates will help us all better define our terms...