Nadine Hardy: “The artist paints and the viewer creates.”

Hello Nadine ! Thank you for granting us this interview. But going back even further, how did it all start? 

I spent my childhood on my family's vineyard and was constantly surrounded by wide open spaces, shadows, shapes and natural landscape. Nourished by my travels, challenged by architectural constructions and exposed to contemporary creation, I naturally gravitated towards light play and knew early on that it would be a keystone in my work.

With a degree in History and Humanities, I have lived in France and the United States. For the past ten years, I have resided in the Southwest of France and am fully dedicated to the practice of painting.

I rarely exhibit my work because I save my strength for each new day in my studio. Today, I sell my works in France and abroad. An artist anchored in my time, I feed myself with several influences such as landscapes, contemporary art, street art, fashion and design. 

Abstraction is your signature style and your means of expression. Why this particular pictorial choice? 

My choice for the abstract allows me to put the viewer at the center of my approach. They can then perceive their own interpretation. I prefer to do this rather than locking them in my own understanding of the world. The freedom of perception of the spectator is the DNA of my work.

I use color for its reflection and its ability to catch light. It allows me to play with signs or symbols (what we know) and with emotions (what we feel). It is a link and a reference point between what I see and what I feel through my history, my cultural roots, my travels and my present environment. I mobilize my own imagination and that of my future viewers.

My approach can be summarized as follows: the artist paints and the viewer creates. The incessant passage between the technique and the unspoken results in a contraction of reality or an intellectual and artistic connection. The latter offers up a place in the present and past world, a balance, but also gives distance and a historical awareness.

How would you describe your creative process? 

The objective is to create an abstraction where color and brush strokes are mixed. I reflect on perception and movement through the choice of colors and specific pigments.

I combine abstract and figurative writing. The silhouettes are free figurations. They can represent people, passers-by, the viewer, etc. They are formed by traces of several layers of paint, much like skin. 

“The artist paints and the viewer creates.” To what end does the viewer appropriate your work?

I invite the viewer to take a role in the creation to give meaning to the composition. With each glance I wish for the observer to discover a different aspect and to then see the work that ends up enveloping it as a whole. 

How would you define your artistic quest? 

The search for balance and the creation of the link between art, contemporary architecture and the art offered up to us by nature. In painting and architecture, balance is achieved by the sense of purpose and aesthetics, forms and colors. 

As for nature, the balance is simple. Look for simplicity and minimalism to understand how nature's balance is perfect.