OTOMYS: As a fine art artist, you also work in photography, film and music. How do each of these disciplines inform your artistic practice and relate to each other?
HERMENTAIRE: Doing a painting, taking a photo, composing music or making a film is quite the same for me. It all starts with the same excitement to create something from the beginning. It’s the process of reaching deeper within myself to source and express emotion; reaching towards a beauty which is bigger than me. Each discipline enriches the other; composition, framing, colour harmony or capture of light hold similar importance in photography, film and painting. Heightening my intuition and sensitivity in one discipline benefits the others. The overall desire to create and express oneself creatively is a precious fuel.
OTOMYS: Otomys is releasing your first series of small drawings on linen paper. Previously we have shown your large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas. How did this change in scale and medium come about?
HERMENTAIRE: Given my interest in a range of art disciplines, I enjoy working across large and small scale across mediums. Alternating mediums and scale is valuable, it shifts my sense of format, technique and composition. The small, faded pencil drawings on linen paper have an intimate and delicate feel and this invites the viewer to step in closer - there is a connection between art and viewer which is slightly more intense than that of my large-scale acrylic paintings. In these small pencil drawings, I work to enhance the material aspect of the medium to allow the naivety and relaxation of coloured pencil drawings to be felt – they are tidy but not meticulous. The simple shapes and forms lean into each other playfully; they have a conversation between them, and no single shape is focused on, the pressure on the pencils is even throughout so that the viewer engages with the composition as a whole dream like story. In this series I have included works with accidental brighter pastel markings, nothing is too controlled and it is often the unexpected random markings which bring joy and fun to the work.
OTOMYS: What is different to one practice from another is the duration of the process.
HERMENTAIRE: Making a film is the most complete, the most complex practice yet the slowest process. You also usually need a huge talented team to make your vision turn to reality. Painting and drawing is more immediate, solitary, meditative and in my case intuitive. Some works can take a while, they may sit in the studio for days before I add to them, they can be resolved over a period of weeks.
OTOMYS: Can you speak to the significance of your ancestry as inspiration behind your art?
HERMENTAIRE: What is quite strange about the inspiration behind my art is that I have never consciously decided to infuse my work with my African heritage from my father’s side. The African characters simply appeared in my paintings, I think because I am French born and paint in an uninhibited way without analysing the work too much, my subconscious thoughts, which carry layers of one’s heritage and culture, come through. Now I allow my subconscious to be referenced and expressed in my work and perhaps that’s why my style remains naïve.
OTOMYS: How do dreams inspire your creative process?
HERMENTAIRE: What is exciting and nourishing about dreams is their infinite possibilities. Dreams are not constrained by requirements of realism and therefore their poetic dimensions are great. I see a real parallel between the meditative state that painting provides and that of the state we find ourselves in when we dream. In both cases the unconscious can express itself completely. To be inspired by dreams is therefore, for me, to be inspired by their limitless possibilities rather than necessarily transcribing specific dreams into works.
OTOMYS: You live and work in France and Greece, do these locations inform your practice?
HERMENTAIRE: For most of the year I live in Paris, France where the cultural scene is intense and diverse. Paris is an inspiring place to be an artist, but I love to contrast this with the silence, space and simple natural scene of a Cycladic island in Greece. Recently I’ve noticed the influenced of the Greek colour, light and wildlife in my paintings, the subconscious is a fascinating suitcase of sorts.
August 13, 2024
