Solanges Jolicoeur - Life Painter - Figurative Non-Anecdotic Subjects

Solanges Jolicoeur

Caribbean Islands/Haiti

Mediums: acrylics / pastels

Style: figurative, non anecdotic subjects

I began drawing, then painting at a very early age. As long as I can remember, painting has always been part of my life, even when I was not a professional yet.

 

Gingerbread © Solanges Jolicoeur

those charming houses made of bricks and wood that resisted the passing of time and disasters, are rarely renovated and disappear gradually.

 

 

 

As a child, I used to make my own greeting cards: Chinese ink for the contours and shadows, color pencils and decorating edge scissors were the magical materials that gave me the feeling of being a professional artist.

Beside painting , I am an art collector and antiques lover, I have numerous personal activities like sports (from racket sports, combat sports (judo) to motorized (off road), I also like internal tourism into cultural sites that inspire me.

 

Art and Music

The music I like playing while creating depends on my conceptual state, sometimes rhythmic, and eventually more quiet when concentrating as I will not consciously listen to sounds around me. So it goes from world music to European classics.

 

What are you trying to convey to viewers through your art?

I want to convey aesthetic emotions. Every artwork must be a journey through imagination and feelings.

 

Conceptual Process

My conceptual process varies according to the motivation for a final outcome. The clearer the picture, the more spontaneous I get to achieve the creation. Sometimes though, I have to build up the project, confronting it to the physical realities of the canvas, through ideas and decisions to attain an artwork that will live up to my expectations. This could eventually lead to an impasse if I lose the live wire of this particular artwork: it will then be a “moment” that can only be transformed with the help of time.

 

Dancer © Solanges Jolicoeur: Featuring other arts, here the intense rhythm of a dancing girl, the music and all the atmosphere around.

 

 

 

 

Art Inspirations

Sometimes, a visual incentive, another time, a sensation, an emotion that become feelings that I want to revive on the canvas. There is the “moment” that can be expressed fluently, whenever the inspiration is complete and the technicality (although very present) is unconscious and serves to its best, pure creativity. And there is the moment where the feelings must confide into the concept: ideas, direct technicality or inversing of technicalities (for style purpose), conscious focusing to grasp the unconscious feelings.

 

Exhibitions

I am a professional painter since the 90’s and had numerous exhibitions in my country Haiti and abroad:

Private art galleries, museums, the French Institute of Haiti, An online art gallery, Arte Americas and

Museum Little Haiti Cultural Center (2010) in Miami, Private Gallerie in Montreal

 

 

Terrace © Solanges Jolicoeur: family intimate scene, by night on a terrace

 

 

 

 

How are you selling your art?

Through art galleries, public events, online art gallery, friends and personal referrals at my studio.

 

How do you promote art online?

My website:solangesjolicoeur.com, my blog:solangesjolicoeurpainting, art listings.

 

Influences

I always knew exactly what kind of artwork I wanted to do. When turning professional, I avoided influences, the glance of others, working alone for months with a view to creating my own style. That’s why critics consider me as apart from known artistic movement in my country. Of course, having grown in an international cultural environment, I have been exposed to numerous influences all my life, and I think that I paint a synthesis of all of their impacts.

 

Please tell us about another artist.

I think of an internationally renowned Artist: Mario Benjamin, whose style (modern Van Gogh) is  not classable and whose painting is just pure, sensible ART.

 

 

 

 

 

Roseflamingos © Solanges Jolicoeur

Featuring and remembering those birds flying off as they are now an endangered species in my country.

 

 

 

 

Do you have regrets?

May be I should have turned professional much sooner (with the same process though)

 

Future Plans

I will continue my aesthetic search evolution, and will be attentive to gain eminence in the international art world.

 

Advice for Artists

To be sure to have found themselves into a style that represent them, before going public, and to only show achieved works to public eyes.(I saved many beginner’s and other stage work that are worth the souvenir and remind me of my path). And also to remember that harsh critics are sometimes more valuable than flat praise and every artist should have its own way of taking a distance from its own work, to be a better judge and settle the matter of choices.

 

Solanges Jolicoeur

Caribbean Islands/Haiti

Website: solangesjolicoeur.com | Blog