Brush embroiders French romance

"It is a tight thread between Chennai and Paris. It is a union beyond the borders. It is combining pearl and pigment, canvas and embroidered thread. It is a bet between two aesthetes. It is an audacious collaboration blending an ancestral craft with gestures guided by intuition and mystery", is how Caroline Dantheny's website describes her upcoming exhibition in Chennai, "Painting India".

For the French painter who studied art and started her career by launching her own women's fashion collection, the collaboration with Jean Francois Lesage was imminent. "I aspired to connect my painting with my not so distant past in fashion and creation of unique pieces. I knew that one day these two universes would collide. Embroidery appeared as the initial idea and along came the first encounter with Jean Franc¸ois Lesage. We shared the same passion for the beautiful and we were already discussing our willingness to work together", says Caroline about the collaboration.

Her first studio in Chennai was set up on Charmiers Road for two months in 2013, it was during this time she painted the first diptych "La source Jaillissante" at Vastrakala. The second installation was at Cholamandal before setting up the latest one at Kottakupam in Pondicherry. "I've been working on this project for more than 5 years. I regularly settle in Tamil Nadu with all my materials for around 6 months every year, each time in a new studio. The initial idea was to produce all the works in India and hence the name", she adds.

When asked about the importance of art in removing differences she quotes Dostoyevsky and says, "I feel today beauty will save the world and today, I'll like to add only beauty. Today, art and artists from all over the world have a major and primordial role to play. We have to be open and share our own differences. We all have a part to play and each of us has to find it with our own capacity and possibility".

The painter defines her art as easily understandable and wishes the audience to enjoy the beauty of it rather than trying to find a concept within these paintings. "I love when someone looks at one of my paintings and say: Whoa! What a beautiful work. That's all and that's a lot. Beauty is universal. Everybody can understand it."