PARIS.- Nestled on rue de Berri in the 8th arrondissement, the Hotel California is one of those discreet and rare gems that houses the most eclectic and exciting private art collections within its historic walls .

Day after day during my stay there , I walked those long corridors , looking , studying and dissecting each work of art in total amazement and disbelief that I could get so close and personal with each and every one of them .

The sheer number and diversity of works is a true testament to the passion of art collecting and refined artistic sensibilities of the hotel’s proprietors ; a philosophy they have carried forward into the twenty-first century by showcasing the works of a roster of contemporary artists on the hotel grounds .

It is in this remarkable setting , imbued with the spirit and masterpieces of the giants , that Catherine Rebillard , a self-taught contemporary Parisian artist is staging her solo show “ Bacco”, Italian for the god Bacchus and coined after one of her works that is charged with the most festive and gleeful colours.

Forty-two works constitute this retrospective exhibition ; charting her course and artistic journey over the last fifteen years from purely figurative pictorial representation when she used oils as a painting medium to her present-day conceptual atmospheric abstract approach using acrylics , mixed media and collage.

A joy to meet as a person and as an artist, she is informative, inquisitive in an interested and connective way , self-critical and enormously self-reflective to the point of agonizing for a long time over her readiness to have this show or not at all.
We discussed her ongoing creative process , her experimentation and the influences that have and continue to shape her art, her sources of inspiration and the extraordinary narrative that unfolds throughout.

For her, “Painting starts where words stop” , it is an art form in “perpetual movement and mutation “ the depth of which she is eager to communicate to the onlooker through texture ,composition , form and colour.

In “La Dolce Vita”, (2015-Acrylic on Canvas-70x50cm ) she pays tribute to her late maternal grandmother who was Italian , she had a dress that had exactly the same colour palette as the ones Rebillard used in the painting , the work unfolded organically , the starting point being the subconscious memory of a loved one . This , she says is the magic of abstract painting , that opens up the possibilities of inter-connective and associative pathways that spring from a deep-seated feeling which materializes as a work of art.

Inspiration comes from everywhere ; visual , auditory, chance encounters with people who fire her imagination, conversations that can become the seed of a concept, the list is far from exhaustive…..

As for the “process” of painting , she typically starts each work by building up layers of collage material paving the way for the application of subsequent layers of various paints and mediums and allowing chance , choice and exploration to shape the final work.

She sums up in her own eloquent words , “the unpredictability and potential sense of discovery is very exciting and is one of the main reasons why I do what I do. My ultimate goal is to create a compelling work of art that engages the viewer and fosters a meaningful and enriching dialogue .”

This show not only celebrates the wonder of the human spirit but reminds us of the eternal question of what it is to be a “true” artist and brings to light the importance of contemporary art patronage and collecting.

In a city that is still reeling from eighteen months of trauma , Parisians are resilient determined people and Beauty and Art will always be first on the agenda !

Catherine Rebillard is a self-taught artist , born in 1973 and has been working in the hospitality industry in Paris since 1995 after having completed her studies in Comparative and Cognitive Linguistics.

Her show is currently at the Hotel California , 16 rue de Berri and runs for the month of July.

Maie Yanni is an independent artist, art curator and contributor. She graduated from The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and specialized in Anaesthesia , Intensive Care and High-Risk Obstetric Anaesthesia.

In the year 2000 she took a sabbatical from medical practice to concentrate full-time on her work as an artist , designer and curator.

She is currently based between Egypt and Europe.