Françoise Schmidt

I'm a painter from Strasbourg. Self-taught, I've been drawing and painting since I was a child. It's a passion that has never left me, and which led me to take classes in various workshops and at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg in my early years.

My career as a teacher of young children has enabled me to explore the plastic arts in all their forms and complexities. With this young audience, I discovered the little bits of paper that we throw away, store, collect and recycle. And that was the starting point for my current work.

So I build my paintings by going back and forth between layers of acrylic paint and collages of various papers gleaned here and there. Sometimes it's the texture that interests me, other times it's the colour, the motifs and the writing that grab my attention. In all cases, I try to ensure that the paper blends harmoniously and almost invisibly into the world I'm painting.

As a city dweller at heart, my current artistic research is focused on urban spaces. I love the city, and walk around it to soak up its atmosphere, smells and colours. I'm sensitive to its architecture and modernity, its contrasts and its geographical location. I particularly like to depict it in rainy, dark or nocturnal moods. But I'm also drawn to wide open spaces and panoramic views. That's why some of my cities emerge from elements such as water, earth or mist. Other times, I depict them from the inside, and it's the details of light, colour or shadow that catch my eye.