We are naturally drawn to human faces; our brains are programmed to spot their shapes among other patterns – we recognize a smile in two dots and a line, notice a face in Martian mountain formations and in the clouds and trees, back on earth. Some even see the face of Jesus Christ starring at them from a piece of burnt toast.
Looking at a human face gives us a pleasant sensation of feeling connected and not being alone. Don’t take my word for it, just look at the images surrounding this text. The faces you see gaze at you from the paintings of a French artist, Françoise Nielly. There’s something enchanting about her massive, vibrant portraits, and viewing them can have a captivating, even hypnotic effect.
First there is the striking beauty of the faces themselves. Nielly’s visages are gorgeous, like those of movie stars trotting the red carpet of Cannes – the famed French Riviera town where the artist grew up. Those large, piercing eyes, full lips, high chick bones belong to the world of celebrities, even though most of Nielly’s paintings are of anonymous models, with a few exceptions such as her portraits of Barak Obama or Marilyn Monroe. Whoever she paints though, ends up looking like a supermodel, which might have something to do with the many years Nielly spent working in the advertising industry.
Then there is Nielly’s technique – bold, sharp and precise strokes, resulting from the artist’s fondness for knife painting. Working in her atelier in Paris, she cuts through thick layers of paint, using the knife’s edge instead of a brush to produce desired shapes and patterns, and the faces that emerge are those of strong, charismatic people. People that are likely to be stared at, admired and followed. One might find a distant echo of propaganda posters of an authoritarian regime in some of Nielly’s portraits, the face of Big Brother gazing from beneath the paint.
Finally, there is what’s maybe the most recognizable trait of Nielly’s work – the colors. Each of her portraits is a polychromatic frenzy. It’s not only that these faces are covered by part makeup and part a peculiar kind of camouflage, that instead of helping them blend in, makes them stand out from a crowd. Theese faces are made of colors; built like a mosaic of brightly tinted pieces.
Over the years Nielly has produced dozens of paintings, some for galleries in Europe, US and Canada, some for brands such as Citroen, Givenchy and other. Browsing through her portraits is like putting a kaleidoscope to your eye. A gentle twist of a wrist, and the colorful elements inside are rearranged, forming a brand new image. They are all alike yet each is unique. And they all are beautiful.
For more information visit francoise-nielly.com
By Maciek Klimowicz
