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Sarah
Ricchiuti was born in Normandy, France. Like her coastal
town of Le Havre, wiped out during the closing months of
WWII and subsequently rebuilt*, her art is intensely
committed to a new start. In all her paintings, there is
something new, something borrowed, something salvaged.
Working from a diversity of materials, she never crafts the
same composition twice. Every piece is completely unique.
The result is an eclectic, varied, and fresh body of work.
“As a
child, I was fascinated by Egyptian bas-reliefs and
prehistoric cave paintings. I felt as if they were drawing
me into their world or stepping into mine. So now, before
every painting, I ‘sculpt’ my canvas to create a
3-dimensional framework and I indulge my love for textures
using sand, gesso, fibers, paper, recycled materials and
acrylic. I look for the grain and consistency that will
best communicate the essence of the subject. Ultimately, you
-the viewer- would decide where to stand to experience the
painting.”
A
self-taught artist, Sarah pursued drawing and painting in
her teens until pressured by the school system into a more
“practical” path. In 1993, she left France, learned English,
and earned a business degree in the United Kingdom.
Following a career in international PR, she moved to
California on a whim, and there she shed the corporate
cloak. As she recalls, it took 15 years to come clean about
what she was meant to do, and 5 more years to find the nerve
to prove it.
A
private and passionate individual, Sarah immerses herself in
art as a way to mentally travel and channel her energy. She
is attracted by symbolism and the transitory. “I like to
portrait moods and feelings attached to sensorial memories.
I recapture and frame what strikes me. I paint focusing on
the peace or emotion I felt at a particular moment in
time…the majesty of coastal trees, the intense sunset of
Normandy, the torment of a flamenco dancer.”
*The center of Le Havre was rebuilt in modernist style by
Auguste Perret and designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in
2005. |
