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Francine Michel

Francine Michel

Curriculum Vitae

Belgian nationality, born in 1952.

Lives and works in France and Belgium.

Studied at the Académies des Beaux-Arts, option ceramics in Tournai and Charleroi.
Has participated in exhibitions in France and Belgium (Wallonia) since 2002.
After having tried drawing, painting and a variation of other art expressions, Francine Michel discovered in 1989 her utmost artistic revelation in working with clay.

Inspiration

She gets inspired by visiting a location, a reflection, a reverie, by looking at nature, reading myths, legends and following-up on current events. On the basis of all this, she makes sketches in her drawing book.

When making her work, there is a certain presence of repetition and automatic signature. Her creations populate the forest and the gardens and are named ‘guardian’, ‘sentry’, ‘walker’, ‘balance’…

Technique

Her work is built up step by step with small clay rolls and slabs being walled up on the inner side. 

She prefers the repetitive pattern to stack and build up in height manageable volumes in a harmonious way.

Her work is being baked first at 900° in an electrical oven.
Afterwards she sprays some layers of oxides and sinter engobes in different colours on them.
Finally, a second baking at an even higher temperature results into their final form and colour.

Works of the artist