| Valerie DUFAU was born in 1966 in Talence near BORDEAUX,
in the Gironde area of France. As a child she had a natural attraction to pictures and her
skill at drawing was noticed early on together with her original personality, a
combination of extreme sensitiveness coupled with a strong temper. She was naturally
encouraged to persue art studies.Valerie DUFAU received her Bachelor of Arts in
Plastics from the Fine Arts College of the University of Bordeaux in 1989. Upon completing
her fine art studies she began employment at the La Jolla Contemporary Art Museum in San
Diego, California. In California a familiarization with transatlantic professional art
circles was developed. Upon returning to France she obtained the qualifications to become
a nationally certified instructor of plastic arts with CAPES certification. It was during
the yearlong certification process that her passion for real painting was awakened:
liberated from academic constraints, she expressed herself in big size canvas and wood
supports. In 1993 while on a yearlong sabbatical in the United States she found herself
again in California, this time exhibiting in the Positive Gallery in Los Angeles. It was
here that she began working to order. Valerie defines her painting as a "symbolic
representational abstraction" utterly contrasting terms that convey the distinctive
features of her art; contrasted matters, mat aspect and brilliance, relief and flatness
and contrasted colors, natural shades and sparking colors. This subtle combination of
matters and colors meets with incisive lines. Her painting is a sensory painting which
arouses all our senses. She plays with monochromes, matters, signs, and styles of drawing.
She likes biblical, mythological and psychoanalytical references. She works on symbolic
abstraction at portraits which show character breaking away from perfect realism. Her
favorite theme is the human form: one that combines flexibility, strength, subtlety, and
dynamism. At times her touch is discreet, at times evanescent, at times aggressive. Always
there is a relation with a tangible reality; often there is a story. The spectator will
enjoy peering into this world and penetrating what is concealed behind the lines.
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Conception et réalisation graphique © Michel TRAVERSAT - 1998 - page mise à jour le : 03-01-2000