Interview with: Caroline Wade
February 2021
Caroline Wade is 44 years old and started painting in july 2019. Her mother was a painter also, so she also painted when she was a young girl. Since 2019, she has painted mainly portraits, landscapes and abstract.
She loves to catch the emotion of one’s face. She also likes to imagine abstract art which makes her mind travels in other worlds.
Her purpose of art is to bring joy to people but also to make people think about themselves and the world around them.
As François Cheng, writter, poet and chinese calligraph said « beauty is not a simple ornament, it is a sign by which the creation signifies that life has a meaning ».
Welcome Caroline, I would like to start this interview from the beginning, do you remember which artist or which artwork moved something inside you when you were a child?
When I was a young girl, I remember that Vincent Van Gogh meant a lot for me, especially his « café terrace at night ». I remember this big poster in my room. I remember also this travel to Auvers sur Oise to see the maison of Van Gogh, « l’auberge Ravoux », and went in Van Gogh room, this was a big and memorial moment for me…
I also liked a lot Cézanne and painted mainly reproductions of Cézanne and Camille Corot when I was a young girl.
And then? how have your approach and references changed growing up?
While growing up, I remember that I started having interest in modern art a I worked in the Maeght Gallery in Spain. I discovered Joan Miro, Marc Chagall, George Braque, Vassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger, Antoni Tapiés. I learned a lot from all of these artists. I discovered also the surrealism movement with Salvador Dali and René Magritte.
As I have the chance to live in the suburb of Paris, I have seen lately the beautiful exhibitions of the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Collection Chtchoukine and Collection Courtauld), exhibitions of Edgar Degas, René Magritte...
Lastly, I discoverd the artist Zao Wou Ki through his beautiful exhibition « the space is silence ».
What function do you attribute to your works and why?
My purpose of art is to bring joy to people, but also to make people think about themselves and the world around them.
For me each experience of art is a beauty experience.
As François Cheng says :
« each beauty experience, so brief in time, while transcending time, gives you back every time the morning freshness of the world »
« Pertaining to being and not to having, the real beauty cannot be defined like a mean or instrument, in essence, it is a way to be, a state of existance ».
It well resumes my practice, I always want to add some kind of soul to my art. In a kind of way, with my paintings, I want people to be better people, to think deeply about themselves and their relation to others and the world.
Usually each artist has a different modus operandi, what is yours? how did your projects start and how do they develop?
I remember that painting « gold tear » from Gustave Klimt took me hours to finish it and was so much joy when finally catching the emotion of the face. Usually it can take hours before saying that a painting is achieved.
I imagine a painting is achieved when I feel that I added a soul to it. To bring the others emotion when they see the painting, to make them think about the deep sense of existance.
We are at the end of this short interview, would you like to add something about your research and your art that has not emerged previously?
I will end this short interview by this beautiful citation of Francois Cheng :
« what is the most beautiful in the artistic creation, it is exactly this feminine part, this music who never stops singing »