Realising Monks in Oil Paintings

Corine Lucas
Oil painter from France

Corine studied business and then worked for 14 years with the pharmaceutical industry before turning to a completely different environment: painting.

Corine followed the advice of Gilles Peyrache who introduced her to the different painting techniques. She continues to learn with Alain Marie with whom she especially made travel books.She apprehended drawing through live model classes with Shane Wolf and Marie-Ange Barbet. She studied with Patrice de Pracontal the materials and pictorial processes. She participated with many Master Classes of painting which allowed her to approach painters of the school of Etampes and / or painters of the marine which she particularly appreciates: François Legrand, Christoff Debusschere, and Alain Jamet with whom she worked portraits, Eric Bari who gave her a look at the values and colors, Jacques Rohaut and Stéphane Ruais with whom she painted on the grounds of landscapes, and Robert Verluca with whom she deepened the composition.

In her own words, “To paint is my passion, my world, my joy. I look at the life around me, capture moments of life, visit exhibitions, leaflets of newspapers, walk, travel… all means are good to find various subjects.” But it will sometimes take her several months to actually make paintings utilising these experiences.

When she goes to her studio, the smell of turpentine and medium greets her. And she feels good. The desire to paint does not happen right away, she often starts by leafing through a book, storing pigments, and classify. And at a precise moment that she does not know in advance, she is attracted by a subject. She considers several possible approaches. She draws a sketch to find a beautiful layout, she draws or she prepares her palette and she goes directly to the oil. She is pulled in to these moments by a positive energy. Then she may go through doubt, undo, rebuild, until the result pleases her.

Art made before coming to AZIMVTH Ashram

Corine’s painting “Maternity” was selected by Imago-Mundi-Luciano Benetton Collection to appear among 210 French artists in his new collection Imago Monday Art France. (Oil on canvas 10×12). Imago Mundi is the collection of works commissioned and collected by Luciano Benetton, the creator and chairman of the Benetton group. There are currently about a hundred bat collections in more than 120 countries. The purpose of this collection is to catalog works, inspirations and ideas, in order to transmit to future generations as wide as possible, mapping the situation of human cultures at the beginning of the third millennium. Exhibition, catalogs, website support the scope of this project.

Corine has exhibited at several solo as well as group exhibitions. The following video is of the exhibition titled “en liberté” held at Galerie Etienne de Causans, Paris, France during March 2016.

Corine also gives art history classes as a volunteer in a special home, and help physically disabled people to make “how-to” drawings.

Learnings at AZIMVTH, Haridwar
Corine’s stay at AZIMVTH Ashram residency in Haridwar, India helped her open her sense and sensibility. At this calm and spiritual place she dedicated her time to oil painting, charcoal, ink, and drawing. She concentrated on her work and analysed where she wants to go from now, and what are the next steps of her art career and how should she get them.

Surrounded by this new culture, she improved practice of Yoga. She learnt and perfected the accurate pronounciation and chanting of some mantras. She also learnt to play the ritual conch. An audio recording of her chanting is available below.

Corine also learnt to cook some kinds of Indian breads and dishes.

Projects at AZIMVTH

A. Realising Sadhus in Oil Paintings
Holy men, and at times women too, of all denominations wearing colours ranging from light yellow to dark maroon, and sometimes wearing no clothes altogether, can be seen all over Haridwar. Corine experienced the sights closely. To make it more real a tailor/designer was called to the residency who took her measurements to stitched a bespoke custom-made long shirt out of an orange coloured hand woven fabric. White and orange coloured habits are issued to the resident artists at AZIMVTH. Corine made a lot of oil paintings.

A.1 Thoughtful Monks
Corine made a series of 3 oil paintings on canvas of monks in pensive moods. These are shown below.

A.2 Monks in Motion
Another series she painted is of monks moving about. These are shown below.A.3 Creating Monks
She used other mediums and colours also to create art-works inspired with the monks. These are works in progress and some are shown in the album titled ‘Creating Monks in Arts – CL’.

Corine gifted many of these original paintings to AZIMVTH.

B. Experimenting with New Techniques – Wash
Corine utilised the residency for experimenting with techniques that she doesn’t normally use in her art-work. An example of a Wash is shown below.C. Learning New Skills

C.1 Learning New Skills – Carving

A set of wood-carving tools are some of the small equipments available at the studios of AZIMVTH. She used them to carve her logo (KL) in thick rubber sheets also available within the studios. This became an actual stamp which could be used to pick permanent-ink from a stamp-pad and printed on paper etc.

C.2 Learning New Skills – Language, Local Artisans

The logo was re-interpreted in Sanksrit alphabets and she made a new design with them. A local wood-artisan rendered that by carving in a wood block. The following video shows how artisans chisel and carve wood-pieces to get the desired art-works. These wood-blocks are used to print manually on bed-sheets, fabrics, etc. All cloths, upholstery, drapery, beddings, bed-sheets used at AZIMVTH Ashram are hand-made and hand-printed.

D. French Themed Artworks – CL
During residency at AZIMVTH, Corine made many other art works utilising the experiences in France. These are works in progress.

(Image below: Left – Completed art work in France, Middle & Right – Paintings made in Haridwar, works in progress). Impact and Next Levels

Image below: Colouring done in the yantras called ‘Das Maha Vidya’ (Sanskrit for ‘Ten Great Knowledges (Goddesses)’) by 13 residents of a disability related NGO in Paris, France. Corine carried these with her from AZIMVTH, Haridwar.Corine will share the art-work she creates at AZIMVTH with her community of artists: family, painters, students and friends. She goes to 2 courses every week: teacher and students are waiting for her work.

She could go in the future to other residencies, in France, in order to share her work done (at residency with AZIMVTH) in Haridwar inspired by India and its culture.

Corine extended her scheduled residency at AZIMVTH by one more week to create more artworks.