Founded in Australia in 2012 by French-born Elise Pioch Balzac, Maison Balzac was born from her boundless imagination. Drawing from the shared French heritage of both Elise and Hermentaire, their creative partnership explores themes of artistry, craftsmanship, and a deep connection to their cultural roots.
Le Rêve CANDEL
The scent of a dream where layers of consciousness are leaving your mind and the wildest imagination enters into the darkness. The state of fantasy is perfectly illustrated by a detail of Hermentaire's acrylic on canvas titled "BIGDJAMBO N°3 - 2020
A CONVERSATION WITH maison balzac and hermentaire
French artist Hermentaire is a multi-disciplinary artist and a collaborator with Maison Balzac on the artwork of our Le Rêve candle in 2021 - his latest exhibition, When My Eyes Wake Up At Night To Wander, is on show at Otomys Melbourne until March 7th 2025.
When My Eyes Wake Up At Night To Wander is an invitation to contemplate, to drift, to lose oneself in imaginary realms, to allow your eyes to wake and wander. For sometimes, it’s in getting lost that clarity is found, and it is in the night that we learn to see differently.
Enjoy our interview with Hermentaire.
Was there a specific dream or sequence of dreams that inspired the works within When My Eyes Wake Up At Night To Wander?
Rather than a single dream, my work is nourished by a continuous flow of nocturnal visions—fragments of dreams that linger in my mind upon waking. These images, born from the night’s wanderings, seep into my unconscious before resurfacing on the canvas. Elusive yet vivid, they feel like echoes of an inner world that exists beyond logic. The exhibition is a reflection of these drifting visions, where the boundaries between reality and imagination dissolve. Each painting is an open door to a dreamscape, a moment suspended between wakefulness and slumber.
How do you use colour to evoke emotion in your work?
Colour in my work is deeply instinctive, functioning almost as an emotional language of its own. I rely on contrasts and subtle harmonies to evoke mystery, introspection, and a quiet, sometimes nostalgic energy. Light and shadow interact to create a sense of presence and absence, drawing the viewer into an ambiguous, dreamlike atmosphere. My goal is not merely to depict a scene but to translate a feeling—one that resonates on an unconscious level, as if inviting the viewer into a dream they have somehow already encountered.
If the exhibition was a scent, what notes would it be?
The exhibition would carry the scent of a dream lingering in the air—fresh green stems evoking fleeting visions, incense weaving a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious, and cedarwood grounding it all in memory. A hint of jasmine, luminous yet elusive, drifts like an echo of something just beyond reach. Naturally, it would be Le Rêve by Maison Balzac.
