My World: My paintings reflect my personality

Days later, as if orchestrated by fate, I found a man selling incredible colours in a souk in Maracas and the idea of including colour in my artwork entered my mind.

Last updated: July 23, 2019 | 22:03

By Florence Pia G. Yu

5 MIN READ

Anne Marie Nilsson

French artist who was recently in Dubai for an exhibition of her works at Al Bustan Rotana Hotel

She was coming out of a club, this dark, Indian woman. She was poor, yet extremely elegant, poised and dignified. She was wearing a sari and looked like a princess.

I was 17, a fashion editor and on my first trip to India for an assignment for Vogue. The six-week expedition was called the Road to India, and the sights, colours and the women in their saris all appeared so beautiful to me.

Years later, the moment is still as vivid in my mind as it was to me then.

Anne Marie Nilsson
How did it all begin? Well, there I was, sitting next to this long table on which my son used to work at home. In front of me was the window that offered a view to the garden springing with life outside the house.

My son had just moved out to become an archaeologist. He used to spend hours and hours on this table, working and studying. Sitting there, I thought, now I must do something on this table. It cannot remain empty. I got out all the flowers and leaves I'd collected, and laid them on the table.

In the beginning, there were only the flowers and leaves. No painting. I arranged them on pieces of paper. It didn't seem extremely interesting to me.

Days later, as if orchestrated by fate, I found a man selling incredible colours in a souk in Maracas and the idea of including colour in my artwork entered my mind.

Then, five years ago, I began to paint.

My first painting was a tiny one. A famous woman in Paris came to have lunch with me and said, 'Oh, you must go on (working on your creation) because it is so pretty! May I buy it?' In two days the painting was sold.

Soon, I began painting some more.

The Indian lady and her beautiful sari floated back in my mind once again. The memory inspired me to produce an artwork: smatterings of lively blue bordered with whitish bougainvillaea petals with a blush of pink at the base, and a line of the same petals running through the centre of the frame. This was how her sari looked.

Since I was 17, I have been collecting petals and leaves whenever I travel - from the West to the Far East. I never knew then that one day I'd be using them to create my art. I'd slip them between pages of books made of special Italian paper to dry them out but still retain their natural colour. I am also especially fond of orchids.

Colours attract me. The shades I use in my paintings are made from natural pigments that I've found in the countries I've visited, mostly Arabian countries. I discovered these powders - shades of ochre, crimson, saffron, light turquoise, light purple and blue - in Syria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. I make these colours by mixing the powder with ink and sand for texture. I use big brushes when I paint.

And when I mix all of these, I never know what it will become, and that's why they are beautiful. I don't have a preconceived image of what I am going to paint when I sit before my easel. It's not technical, it's more emotional. I let my feelings guide my brush.

I was always encouraged to express myself. As a child, my father - an art dealer in Paris - would ask my siblings and me what we thought of the interesting talent he had discovered. I'd say, 'No, I don't like that painter.'

He'd ask, 'Why don't you like him?' and I'd reply, 'His colours are not very strong.' So he would go to that painter and say: 'You know, my daughter says your colours are not very strong. I think she's right. Perhaps you should think about that.' And we were just around 10 years old!

I think my father understood how children see things very purely. Children talk from the heart.
I never took art lessons. I've never learned how to draw. If my child were to tell me to draw a house now, it's going to look like a child's drawing. (But) art was just in me.

It has been very easy for me to be artistic because I was born in a family that appreciates art. My brother is an architect and my sister works in the fashion industry. Our mother was an architect, too, and father was an art dealer, so we had paintings all over the house. In my room, I had (paintings of) Picasso, Braque, Salvador Dali and surrealists.

All my youth, I was surrounded by great paintings. Just looking at them was the best lesson for me. It taught me the association of colours - knowing what will blend right; what will convey the right kind of emotion...

Painting has always enchanted me - it is never really work to me. I am now 60 years old. In five years, I have created hundreds of paintings, and all of them are unique. I have also sold every one of them. My work has been especially appreciated in Japan. My exhibits are always called Picture Poems. To me, painting is like telling a poem, but instead of the words, you have the painting. I have had several exhibitions in New York and Paris. I am preparing for one in Tokyo.

My father coordinated a lot of important exhibitions during his time. My mother, who died of cancer when I was only 15, was the one who encouraged my father to stage more and more exhibitions.

We lived in Montparnasse in Paris, where all the artists lived. My parents never asked me to take art lessons because for them it was more important to look around, to feel... Perhaps they were wrong. Maybe if I had (taken) lessons, I would've done other things. I think children, if you teach them at a very young age to take a pencil, a brush and colour, and let them do what they want, will become great painters.

I think it is important to realise what experience can give you. And discover what it is that you are able to do.

Some people don't know what they like; they don't even know what they want. They don't feel anything. They just think, 'Oh, I'm going to buy this because the next person is buying the same thing.' But life is not like this. You have to know what you want; what you like.

Working in the fashion industry gave me a lot of confidence. I was 17 when an editor from Vogue approached me. It had already been a year since we moved to New York as my father thought we needed a change of atmosphere after mother died. I was helping him run a gallery.

This editor knew my background and asked me to choose several fashion accessories. After I made my choices, she told me, 'You have a very good taste. Would you like to be one of my editors?'

So I became this young fashion editor who never even went to a higher school. For me, life is a school in itself. Five years in Vogue taught me a lot of things. I organised pictorials down to the last details - from choosing the photographer down to choosing the clothing to feature. It was all very serious for a 17-year-old, but I learned how to be strict; how to be punctual; how to be organised...

After working for Vogue, I also worked for ELLE, Marie Claire and other such magazines. Fashion prepared me for life and made

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