Artist painter of plants

“From garden to drawing, from drawing to book, plants are my source of inspiration!”

Raphaèle Bernard-Bacot
Raphaèle Bernard-Bacot during a sketchbook workshop in the garden of the Rivau Castle. (Photo Georges Leveque)

 

After years spent in regular contact with dancers, Raphaèle Bernard-Bacot has found new inspiration in gardens and travelling. She has created a set of drawings called Fruits dansés (Fruit Dances). In 2017 she had her sketchbook published by Glénat : The Royal Vegetable Garden of Versailles, Seasons drawn in Versailles (Le Potager du Roi, dessins de saison). In 2020 her second book City Gardeners, Portraits Sketched On The Spot (Jardiniers des villes, portraits croqués sur le vif) has been published by Rue de L’Echiquier.

In 2023, her application entitled My garden through the seasons (Mon jardin au fil des saisons), in association with the Médiathèque de Saint-Cloud, was selected for a Writer’s Residence with the Ile-de-France Region.
The same year saw the publication of her third book, Allotment gardens, tomorrow gardens – A drawn walk (Jardins ouvriers, jardins de demain – Promenade dessinée), published by Cours Toujours.

She is interested by the relationship between human and nature and draws all types of gardens from allotments to remarkable gardens open to the public.

But why do people speak of “nature morte” (dead nature) in French, or “still life” in English? If you pick up a plant from the ground and really look at it, from the roots to the leaves, there is nothing dead, or even still, in the forms, or the colours, there is nothing but life! As with dance.

 
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