insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 05 - July 2015 | Page 14

arts+entertainment

Artist Profile:

Claudine Peronne

Claudine Peronne’s art is both mysterious and romantic. Evocative
silhouettes stand out starkly and purposefully against the most beautiful
backdrops of calm night times, crisp snowscapes, and peaceful, elegant
landscapes. Eye catching and with a story to tell, just how did this French
born artist, who now resides in West Sussex, begin creating her pieces,
and why did she choose the route she did?

“The arts gradually became a vital and integral part of my life and I carried
on working in this fashion until 2011. That year I joined the Shoreham Art
Gallery (a collective of artists) and took part in the Worthing Art Trail. I also
joined the West Sussex Art Society and took part in the annual exhibitions
at the Oxmarket Centre of Arts in Chichester.
“The meeting of my images with the outer world somehow transformed
my work and my art gradually moved from being entirely shaped by the
inner world to being mainly shaped by the external world. A lot of the
pieces I created between 2006 and 2011 never ‘saw the light’; I felt their
darkness and their strangeness ruled out the possibility of taking them
out, and among the ones I displayed only a few were marketable. My
current work mainly evolved from those few images. Most of the pictures I
created after 2011 were either smaller (and therefore cheaper) versions of
these more commercial works or a merging of some of their elements.

Here, Claudine gives us an insight into her art, her spirituality, her past,
and her future.
“My immersion in the arts world began in 2006 as I started an MA course
in Transpersonal Arts Therapy at the University of Chichester. I had just
completed a course in Integrative Therapy, and felt the need to deepen
the inner search.
“The course was in no way about learning art or ‘producing’ artwork.
It was mainly experiential with the practice of authentic movement, the
use of creative arts, and the keeping of a journal at its core. The point of
departure was authentic movement, which was practiced eyes closed
focussing on the body, feelings, and sensations and inner images. This
was immediately followed by a drawing depicting our experiences.

“The pictures I create now are mainly small animals, silhouette drawings,
often romantic. I still make small clay sculptures and about three years
ago I began painting seashells in the same style as my pictures. I can’t
recall what led me to paint shells but I like their connection to the natural
world and the depth of the sea and I like to think that their presence in
my art as well as the animals’ silhouettes still carry traces of the dreamy
shadowy world within, the original ground from which my art emerged.”

“Those pictures which came to life – often in a flash – became the roots
from which my art grew. Though this wasn’t a requirement of the course,
I felt compelled to work on these images between the fortnightly course
meetings and spent a considerable amount of time reworking them,
mainly in the form of pastel drawings and small clay sculptures.

Claudine’s art is currently for sale at the Shoreham Art Gallery, 27,
Brunswick Road, Shoreham-by-Sea; and Inspired by the Sea (next to
Worthing Pier). She also sells her work online through
www.artgallery.co.uk and Etsy. Links to those websites can be found on
her website at www.claudinesart.co.uk.

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