Olympe Thomas-Lamotte is a French artist residing in India and in her art, one can see the confluence of two cultures. While she is influenced by Claude Monet’s use of colours, the light of Normandy that bedazzled several impressionists including Monet, Olympe also draws from the rich colour palette of her adopted country, India. She has also frequented Claude Monet’s house, with its famous garden and lily pond.
For her first public exhibition “Indian Summer” at Navrathan’s Antique Arts Gallery Nine, Olympe has done a series of self-portraits. In every canvas, there is a woman in a different mood and emotion. If in one, she is sitting casually on a chest box, probably unaware of a snake near her feet, in another she stands near a staircase with a parrot perched on her head.
These symbols suddenly take the linear story appear non-linear with subtexts in it, only if the viewer bothers to go beyond the evident beauty. Olympe says she has been working with the subject of woman for a long time. “My mother is a sculptor and for her too, women are a significant subject matter. My father always told me to be true to my work. I feel if I depict a subject I understand well, only then can I be true to it. I relate to it,” says the artist, adding though she has done self-portraits, resemblance to her is accidental and not conscious.
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But she invests in them her emotions and new found experiences in India. The eyes of the women in her paintings — bright and expressive — are reflective of that.
Women, as a subject matter is expansive and can’t be covered in just one series. There is much to be explored and said. So, I am working on another series — drawing from the subject,” explains the artist born in Normandy, Norther France. Olympe was named after Olympe de Gougues, a famous French feminist of the 18th Century. Amrita Sher-Gil has been another source of inspiration for the artist.
After shifting base to India, Olympe’s colour palette has undergone a major change — with bright colours entering the fray. “My birds, flowers are brighter. I have got more freedom with respect to colours because in France you have these rules about colour combinations. I would have shied from using these colours back there.”
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(“Indian Summer” is on at Navrathan’s Antique Arts Gallery Nine, The Haveli, 39, MG Road, till October 30)