Marie Lenclos
Artist Statement
Marie Lenclos is an oil painter who lives and works in Loughborough Junction. Her paintings are inspired by her immediate environment, colour, lines and shapes, both figurative and abstract.
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More about the artist
Lenclos is a French painter who lives and works in Loughborough Junction. She studied at the Royal College of Art and Camberwell College of Art. Her work is centred around three main themes: urban landscapes, geometric abstracts and trees. All have in common her unique sense of lines, light and colour.
Lenclos’ urban paintings capture moments of light and order within the everyday chaos. Often mundane or domestic, the landscapes or interiors she paints present themselves to her during her journeys to or from work across South London.
Suddenly, familiar architecture or scenes strike her, and force her to stop and see. A certain angle, composition, set of colours, the way the lines fall: a painting imposes itself in this moment.
The resulting works present a unique stillness in urban spaces and architecture. The paintings work like long exposure photographs, intensifying colours and removing traces of people and activity, allowing both artist and observer to contemplate the interplay of colour, light and form in the physical environments we inhabit.
Some viewers report an experience of calmness, of warmth, of serenity, whilst others feel a sense of unrest and anticipation.
Lenclos' collection of geometric abstract paintings, currently exhibited at Linley's in Belgravia, takes inspiration from the natural world: sea, sky, landscapes. A brief encounter with a specific light and set of colours seen in the natural world provokes in Lenclos an abstract interpretation focussing on the mood or emotion of that moment.
Marie Lenclos lets her intuition guide the initial drawing, where dynamic lines are traced with ink on the linen surface. Once the structure is drawn, the painting comes to life through Lenclos' superb sense of colour. She paints free hand, letting the brush caress the canvas to create echoing gradients of colour from which a landscape slowly emerges.
Artist’s CV
Competitions and Prizes
2020
Visual Art Open, finalist
Sunny Art Prize, finalist
2019
London Contemporary Art Prize, shortlisted
Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize, finalist
Shows, fairs, exhibitions 2020
Upstart Gallery, London
Linley’s Design Store, London
Sunny Art Centre, London
Studio 73, Solo Show, London
155a Gallery, London
Gas Gallery ‘Art Fair At Home’ online show
The Art Buyer online
