Stéphanie Chatelet, contemporary mosaic artist
FR - A colourful and artistic encounter with Nîmes-based mosaic artist Stéphanie Chatelet.
Stéphanie's world is one of highly contemporary, modern and inventive creations.
PORTRAIT
The artist
Hello Stéphanie, and thank you for welcoming the UzEssentiel editorial team to your studio.
First of all, could you introduce yourself to our readers?
After living in Montpellier for a number of years, I decided to move to Nîmes in 2005 after retraining as an interior designer there.
As a mosaic artist, I've added welding, monumental sculpture and ceramics to my curriculum, enabling me to transform my idealised project on paper into a 3D work of art.
All this has also enabled me to envisage bigger, more ambitious projects, such as murals, swimming pools and entrance halls. A fantastic playground.
How did you develop your passion for mosaics?
In reality, mosaics have almost always been part of my life, as I was already practising it alongside my first job. So choosing to leave my job to set up my own business and make a living from my passion became an obvious choice over time.
Plus, I really love working with materials! It was tiles that first interested me, for their playful, colourful and soft feel. Lately, I've been experimenting with paper pulp bases, like these sconces for light fittings. Mosaics lead to so many projects!
A dream world
You work with materials in a very personal way, creating very special patterns and works. How do you come up with the themes for your mosaics?
My personal projects develop mainly from my imagination. I create very freely and intuitively.
However, when I'm commissioned to do something, I always prepare 3 proposals, so that I can assess the needs and wishes in a different way. If the selected result is accepted graphically, I go directly into the actual creation.
What is more, if the project requires collaboration with other mosaicists, I keep the more complex, technical parts and have my colleagues work on the backgrounds so that the finish is totally uniform, which requires great technical skill and, above all, perfect harmony in the team. Above all, the team has to work together perfectly.
‘Materials are at the heart of this art: Italian handmade glass, stained glass, stone, marble, minerals, tiles, pebbles, glazed earthenware and porcelain stoneware. These materials have been rethought to produce highly personal creations, ranging from subjects to landscapes, impressive wall mosaics’ (Stéphanie Chatelet)
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You work with glass in unconventional ways... sometimes adding materials that are totally foreign to mosaics (iron, parts of jewellery, etc.). What does a working day look like in your studio?
First there's the idea, which evolves little by little. The choice of support, the choice of materials, thinking about the mechanical grip, the balance... Some of my creations are also sometimes accompanied by a text, which expresses my feelings at the time of its development, its story too, which blends with the colours, textures, design, relief, materials...
Glass, ceramics, metal, leather, wood, wire mesh, electric wires too, like this computer screen reworked, rethought, destructured as we would say today.
‘Through research and practice, I test and experiment, exploring new horizons and constantly seeking to renew myself. I question myself, I wonder...’ (Stéphanie Chatelet)
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Your creations go hand in hand with those that are commissioned. Are there some subjects that inspire you more than others?
We've noticed your taste for nature (a magnificent tropical mosaic mural for a new children's village run by the Action Enfance foundation in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region of France) and wildlife in general (like this superb hummingbird leaning against a mirror, a commissioned work for the Paris region, or this magnificent ‘DNA 98’ gorilla, the 2 chromosomes that separate the monkey from humans), ...
I like living things, nature, for its grace, its poetry, the emotion it transmits. Whether I'm working on my own projects or on commissions and exhibitions, nature is part of my world, revealing structures, shapes and subjects. Nature comes to life, as in this mural created for a children's village in Aquitaine.
Artistic mosaic hanging baskets for the birds and plants in your garden... combining aesthetics, ecology and originality. Give personality to your outdoors, while doing good for nature, with organic and pure shapes, modern, graphic motifs, semi-opal stained glass in deep colours... (Stéphanie Chatelet)
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You have a very busy and organised schedule. How do you manage to reconcile your personal work with your many activities: commissions for private individuals and professionals, exhibitions, as well as courses and training?
I welcome 6 to 8 students to my studio in Nîmes for training courses lasting 2 days or even a week, and elsewhere in France in training centres or collaborating with colleagues who invite me to organise a course in their studios.
I also take part in national and international projects, as I did in Chile and Germany, giving me the chance to work with mosaicists from all over the world. What a fantastic exchange!
My biggest project lasted... 1 year. It's an heavy, tricky and complex work, but at the same time it's particularly stimulating and ambitious. On the other hand, everything else I do has to remain in pause mode during this time. You have to know how to manage that too.
Thanks to Stéphanie Chatelet for her collaboration to UzEssentiel.
The right address: Stéphanie Chatelet, Atelier 1360 chemin de Camplanier, Nîmes. Tel: 06 26 40 51 62, contact. Follow Stéphanie Chatelet on Instagram or facebook.