CONTACT
virginia@isbell-art.com
Instagram: @poucetteisbell
LIFE
(Version française)
Born in Maryland to a Franco-American couple, I grew up astride the Atlantic. I moved to Paris for high school, passed my “baccalauréat litéraire” and returned to the United States for college. At Yale I studied Comparative Literature. Then I swung back to Paris, to work as an English language journalist for ten years (Newsweek, UPI, Agence France-Presse and National Public Radio).
I had thought writing would be my métier, until at 27 I fell headlong into painting (my French grandfather, Anthime Mazeran, was a recognized watercolorist). I took master classes from pastel artist Pierre Skira, with whom I would study for 15 years. Skira was an assistant teacher in the studio of Leonardo Cremonini, who in turn accepted me in his atelier at the Beaux-Arts School in Paris.
I began showing in Paris. Ten years on, fascinated by monotypes seen at the Musée d’Orsay, I went to learn the technique in René Tazé’s printing studio. I met painter and print-maker Jean-Baptiste Sécheret there. He introduced me to plein-air painting with his class at the Architecture School of Belleville, Paris. I became his assistant teacher, and then his substitute, including for the film Degas, le corps mis à nu where I was Edgar Degas’ hands making a monotype.
Retrospectively, my work seems to be divided into decades: first of still-life oils and life drawing in my Paris studio, then monotype, then plein-air landscapes, and, since the pandemic, mixed media with cyanotype, which I call Sunpainting.
Most recently, I have branched into multi-media installation, working with dancers and musician to create Sunpainting: el baile oriental in Uruguay's Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA). Each performance was different, improvised with a loosely scripted narrative arc. Full inaugural performance (20') on view here: https://vimeo.com/924736674?share=copy
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS, PRIZES & PUBLICATIONS
2024
Sunpainting: el baile oriental, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Pablo Atchurgarry, Uruguay
Detrás del velo, Galería Sur, La Barra, Uruguay
2023
Lisières Galerie Sit-Down, Paris, France (photography, cyanotype, and printed veils)
2022
Paroles de peintres, Salle Paul Rosemberg, Paris (group show presenting five figurative painters and my book of interviews on their craft)
2021
Sunpainting, Galería Sur, Uruguay (includes the book Sunpainting)
2019
Semana de Cultura Francesa, Punta del Este
2018
Sur le motif, Musée d'Art de L'Isle-Adam
Nus et nuages, Mairie de Trouville, Normandie
Almanecer, Galerie Argentine, Paris
2013
Ciels, Galerie Sit Down, Paris.
2012
Vies Vagabondes, Galeria Menéndez, Buenos Aires.
La vie vagabonde, Les Tanneries du Pays de Conches, Normandie.
2011
La vie vagabonde, Galerie Sit Down, Paris.
2010
Visions de Femmes, Espace Culturel les Dominicaines, Pont l'Evêque.
2009
Monotypes Galerie Canal Pictures & Art, Paris.
2008
Burton Marinkovitch Gallery, Washington, D.C.
2007
Ultramares, Galeria Isabel Anchorena, Buenos Aires.
Prix Business et Décision, Paris.
2006
Bank of Inter-American Development, Washington DC.
2004
Galerie du Vert Galant, Paris.
2002
Galerie CROUS, Paris.
1998
L’Art au Marché, Saint Cloud.
1995
La Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
1994
Salon de Montrouge, France.
1991
Lauréate du concours « La Femme Enfin ».
Orangerie du Luxembourg, Paris.
Réfectoire des Jacobins, Toulouse.