ABOUT
Mathilde Arthaud
BIOGRAPHY
Mathilde was born an artist, self-taught, but an artist nonetheless from head to toe. Her creativity never had any limits and she used it always in her day to day life.
From a young age, she began with various artistic disciplines such as writing, ceramics, sewing and drawing, which later made her discover painting. The important thing for her was to create, experience and feel.
She was born in France, but her family moved to Spain when she was a teenager. This moment marked her life. The desire to live new experiences and discover other cultures led her to travel and settle for long periods of time in various countries such as China, Australia, Greece and the Philippines, among others. Her trips around the world are largely responsible for the vitality, strength, and optimism that Mathilde transmits through her art.
In addition, she worked for many years in the event industry which also allowed the expression of her creativity. She loved designing all kinds of projects for her clients, but she also began to paint in order to have the freedom to be herself, to create according to her own criteria.
She moved from figurative art to abstract art because she realized that she was fascinated by asymmetrical figures, imperfect edges, sinuous lines, disorder within an order, organized chaos according to her criteria. Over time, Mathilde has been defining and narrowing down her painting method, until she reaches the explosive combination of shapes and colors that is characterizing her current style.
STATEMENT
Before starting painting, I wanted to be a writer. I loved short stories and especially poetry. I found it captivating, being able to express something with a few words, giving space for the reader's imagination, leaving aside the artist's subjectivity.
Painting has this in common with poetry, it leaves the artist in the background and the observer becomes also a creator. Through each observer’s eyes, the painting tells a singular and particular story.
The same painting tells as many stories as the number of eyes observing it. It is a story in constant movement, as it changes with every set of eyes and also through time.
Although I am the creator of the artwork, each painting it’s totally independent of me. An intimate and unique relationship is created each time with the viewer. That is why I do not like to explain what the painting "represents" or "means" to me, I want to leave the observer free to see his own story.
It is true that I like to use words or sentences in my paintings. The intention is to give the artwork another dimension. They act as a catalyst, offering the viewer keys to activate memories and senses. For example, if we take the paiting “Salty Kisses”, when reading these two words, suddenly and unconsciously, we have a taste of sea in our mouth.
I think that, through colours, shapes, textures, each painting has its own alphabet and uses a sublime language, very universal and at the same time completely personal. This apparent contradiction is what fascinates me and encourages me to continue painting and experimenting.
My paintings are an invitation to travel, remember, dream, imagine...
My paintings are stories made of colours.