Virginia Fauvre: Paintings and Reliquaries

Creating a painting, for me, is like taking a journey: With a blank canvas I enter new territory. I don't have a map. l go places I haven't been before, feel new feelings, use energy I didn't know I had. And I always end up at a destination I had not imagined.

A photograph starts the process. A scene excites me because of its strong shapes, unique colors, darks and lights, and its energy. In the studio I use the photo to inspire a beginning. I work the surface of the canvas, using oil paint and various tools: cold wax, palette knife, roller, brush. I build up the surface, then scrape it to find new ideas "underneath." In the process I have abstracted the literal landscape to create a personal statement, like recovering a dream from the unconscious.

When I come to the final destination - a completed painting - I feel, to borrow from Rilke, that

"Once more my deeper life goes on with more strength
As if the banks through which it moves have widened out."

Rainer Maria Rilke, "Moving On"
Translated by Robert Bly