Artworks by Grâce Pégéron

I was born an artist – never "became" one. Drawing and painting have been with me as long as memory holds: the pull was there before I could name it. At the Beaux-Arts in Nice (I did the cursus but didn't graduate), my teacher pushed strict figurative work, which bored me to death. So I stepped away and built a different life in the arts: for two decades I worked as a screenwriter by trade, crafting stories for the screen, while designing aside – logos for associations (often for free, because budgets were tight), book covers for my own writing. All of it creative, but mostly digital, mostly on screen. Eventually I needed to escape the computer, to feel life again, get my hands dirty with real paint and canvas. That's where I am now, still. What drives me? It comes from within – an inner necessity to translate emotion, intuition, the quiet stories people carry. My intuitive portraits catch that unspoken presence in a gaze or gesture; my symbolic abstracts layer colour, symbol, and mark until something deeper surfaces. It's not choice; it's breath. Medium chose me too. As a child I watched my granddad with oils – too fussy, too much care for a kid. Acrylics had improved so much when I returned, quick and forgiving, so I started there. Now oil haunts me again; I'm mixing both, letting the slow richness pull me in. I favour both small and large works – whatever the piece demands. I'm from everywhere and nowhere: grew up between south of France, Minnesota, California, Paris, Nice, now settled in Mèze, Hérault – always near water, which somehow seeps into the work. Why Artfinder? I want to reach collectors who connect with this kind of felt, original work – especially across Europe, where contemporary, emotive art finds such open eyes. Artfinder's direct, artist-centred approach feels right: real control, genuine connections, a global stage that lets the pieces speak without intermediaries. After a recent two-month solo show in Balaruc ("Dames," last year – heading back in July), I'm ready to share more widely, find new conversations for these paintings. In the end, I create because I must – and sell here because it's a place that honours the individual voice, the story, the quiet magic in each brushstroke.