Interviews and portraits

UzEssentiel editor had the pleasure of meeting Nicole Besnainou, an artist who was awarded a prize by French Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters last October, along with the painter Erick Millet from Bouillargues, among a selection of international artists.

FR - From his hometown Peterborough to Uzes, from London to Saskatoon, Canada, find out more about the many inspirations of British painter Oliver Bevan.

Meeting Laura was a real pleasure. Sculptor, sometimes calligrapher... Let's talk about a little-known profession, where art and creation are the key words.

FR - Native of the Auvergne region, in France, David Vernede has undoubtedly drawn inspirationfrom this rustic and rural territory.

From Biarritz in the Pays Basque to the château de la Rochepot, in Burgundy, from Giverny in Normandy to the small villages of Luberon, Carole takes us along her own private tour in France.

FR - Born in the north of France, Charles Flahault would gain fame in the south, in Montpellier.

Several years ago, Australian-born author and French teacher Catherine Berry convinced her husband to leave their comfortable, suburban life in Melbourne to go and … live in France with their three young children.

American born author Keith Van Sickle first visited France, and more especially Provence, almost 30 years ago.

As he and his wife described this early France encounter, “ it was love at first sight ” !

But it was not until 2008 that the couple decided to make the final step : to start living a part-time French life, “ between Provence and California ” .

FR - Named after its founder, David Jamin, the gallery - and workshop Jamin is located, since 2013, in a historic house with centuries-old vaults in the centre of Uzès, rue Saint-Théodorit, a privileged setting for his shimmering colours paintings, with frank and dynamic brushstrokes.

Residing in France since 1997, and more specially in Aix-en-Provence, Mary Lou Longworth left Santa Cruz, in California, where she had lived with her family for ten years, to live the French life.

FR - Agathe has been passionate about ceramics for a long time.

And, one day, she decided to make a rather drastic professional move and became a ceramist. 
 

FR - Originally from the South of France, and a Uzétienne by adoption, the painter Mireille Feuillie-Casalis loves colour.

"I was born in the middle of boxes of pastels and watercolours..."

From the Beaux-Arts of Nantes to the illustrations of her doctoral theses during her studies in biology, from the inspiring exchange with Moroccan artists, strong of their "non-figurative tradition, more open to form and decoration" during her years in Casablanca, to the artists' workshop she runs in Uzès from the end of the 70s, Mireille Feuillie-Casalis pursues her training and gradually returns to watercolour, an art all in delicacy and poetry.

Un site, une page Instagram, des box, A French Collection, c’est un peu tout ça à la fois, en fait.

Mais A French Collection, c’est aussi et surtout la touche de sa créatrice, Annette Charlton, une australienne tombée amoureuse de la France en 2009.

a French Travel & Lifestyle blog about life in France - '100% French mood'

FR - Welcomed by Lynda and Gérard Bellaïche, UzEssentiel has discovered the creations of a very inspired artist.

FR - In 1834, Prosper Mérimée is thirty years old. Appointed inspector general of the French Historical Monuments, he starts to travel through France and its architectural heritage and tries to find a way to protect it.