Rosângela x Carré Blanc x Carré d’artistes
- 22/09/2022A Queen's ADORNMENT
A new collaboration full of style, with the meticulous work of Rosângela.
For the second consecutive year, Carré d'artistes and the prestigious brand of household linen Carré Blanchave joined forces to launch a collection around magnificent female portrait. This year we have unanimously set our sights on the artwork of Rosângela, with her female-goddess faces. Two portraits of great finesse, one from the front, the other from behind, are an ode to femininity. This woman with a piercing look represents all women. She is elegant, enigmatic, not to mention, endowed with a thousand facets, adorned like a queen, with a copper-gold crown.
To celebrate this beautiful collaboration, Rosângela has created female portraits that you will find in our Carré d'artistes galleries and on our website.
Come and check these out at once!
FROM PAINTING TO TEXTILE!
When the first portrait namely Sun in the Morning was selected, it was in one of the Carré d'artistes galleries. The second, from behind, was created especially for the occasion by Rosângela to complete the adornment by imagining this enigmatic woman’s back, whose soul is unveiled through these two portraits.
The artworks were then transported to a studio in Lyon, to photograph them in high definition.
These pictures made it possible to transcribe the fine hair of this female icon, along with the intense look and the bright colors of the patterns on the textile. Carré blanc has even been able to rediscover the brilliance of gold foil, with touches of copper sequins, that in turn reflect light.
This encounter will lead to a new creation, which will make room for art everywhere.
WHO IS ROSÂNGELA?
She represents the presence and the intriguing look of a woman, among all women, with hair of great delicacy but crowned with gold. Rosângela Sousa Ferreira wants to portray women, who are powerful and beautiful. She underlines the beauty of their soul through the colors she creates, and the abstract shapes she interweaves, between touches of gold foil.
From now on, you can display Rosângela everywhere: both on your walls and on your bed!
Discover the artist and her artworks
Découvrez les coulisses de la collaboration
Check out Rosângela's interview
1. Introduce yourself in a few words. What is your background?
My name is Rosângela, I’m Brazilian-Canadian.
I've been drawing ever since I was little, I started by simply drawing with pencils.
In 1993, when I was 16, I was selected to take part in the World Scholar-Athlete Games at the University of Rhode Island in the U.S, in order to represent Brazil in the field of art, which allowed me to display my first artwork at the Providence Civic Centre.
From 16 to 40 years old, I never painted again, I stopped completely.
I had three children, and after a long break in my career, I was looking for a more conventional job but I was turned down a lot due to this important break. A little disappointed by the society’s lack of recognition towards mothers, I looked for other leads, and although I was very unsure I still went back to Art again and I contacted Carré d'artistes in 2021, only a year ago.
2. How did your vocation as an artist begin?
My vocation as an artist began at a very young age. Drawing was not only for me a way to express my creative side, but also to express my feelings, to get away, to allow my soul to have a break. For me, it’s when I paint that I really feel relaxed, my inner world is really and deeply rested. Drawing offers a break to my mind and soul.
I always try to play with colours, light as well as clean lines and shapes through my painting. On natural linen canvases, I work on the texture using various materials such as acrylic and gold, copper, or silver leaves.
I usually start with the face; I try to be close enough to reality. Then I work on the hair’s subtleties and the decorations that are in it.
Finally, I finish with the abstract part. I don't plan the colours in advance, they're going to be influenced by the seasons, my environment, what I watch on TV. For example, I did a very 80s inspired series, I think I was very influenced by the Stranger Things tv show, the flashy and fluorescent colours are a reminder of the 80s’ punk influences. Another collection is more influenced by summer colours or sunny, fresh, and fruity colours. I then spend a lot of time harmonizing them. I look for elegance in the combinations. This is the part that takes most of my time because I mix the colours myself and nothing is random in my choices and chromatic structure.
4. What are your artistic inspirations, influences, and references?
My first source of inspiration is the work of Manolo Valdés, who paints women’s elegance in huge and refined paintings. Manolo's influence is very strong, he paints femininity itself, some do not have a face because they represent all women. In front of his paintings, I discovered my high sensitivity to art: I realized that some paintings could give me goosebumps, can make me cry. A doctor diagnosed me: I have Stendhal syndrome. This is quite rare, and it gives rise to very intense reactions to art, like love at first sight. Some people experience palpitations and dizziness, which can even lead to fainting while contemplating a work of art.
I’m also inspired by the decoupages of Henri Matisse and Yves Saint Laurent as well, who dressed his models with masterpieces.
5. What is your relationship to femininity, which is transcended in your paintings?
This is an ode to women!
Women being the foundation of all human life on earth, I wanted to represent their strength, their resilience, their state of mind and most importantly, their soul. My goal is to bring out the goddess in each one of us. We are always too critical of ourselves, society is cruel too, we need to regain confidence in ourselves. We are worth it!
I want to represent all women on this planet: they are beautiful and deserve all the best. I pay a fabulous tribute to all women.
6. What are the meanings behind the colours you use? Do you want to convey a message through your works?
The very colourful part of my painting does not simply represent a garment but it’s rather a veil that represents its soul. The soul is always better represented by colours and light. Through the use of different colours, I wanted to represent, among other things, their facets.
I leave the linen canvas voluntarily noticeable because linen and gold leaves are noble materials that I use and put forward, to a pay tribute to women.
7. What was your reaction when you were asked by Carré Blanc for bed linen? How does it feel to see your work "undercover"?
Obviously, I didn't believe it at all. Ever since I arrived in France in 2010, both the bed sets and the bath towels of Carré Blanc were for me synonymous of quality, elegance and modernity with beautiful colours.
I had a hard time realizing what was happening to me because things happened very quickly. In June 2021, I contacted Carré d'artistes, I made some small format works and then I started exhibiting and selling large format canvases in Lyon. And that's when, just a few months later, Carré Blanc fell for “Sun in the Morning”.
It's very nice to see that people understand my message and love what I do. I was immediately attracted to Carré d'artistes' idea of making art accessible to everyone. I am convinced that art must be shared by as many people as possible. And with Carré Blanc, through this distribution in another format, the happiness brought by art will be shared by even more people.
8. What was the biggest challenge in completing this commission?
For the first painting, Carré Blanc chose this painting of the woman goddess among many other works.
Then they asked me to do the other side of the painting. The biggest challenge was to start from that same woman and then imagine her back. I had to rely on the first canvas to keep the proportions and the woman’s position right. But it was a great work of precision. I measured everything to make sure I remained faithful to this first representation of the woman.
9. What was the best piece of advice you were given as an artist?
So it's not really good advice but an artist and friend of mine told me that if a canvas takes more than 3 hours, it's not a good one. This made me I think that I wasn’t getting anywhere, my paintings take me at least 5 days, or even weeks... This piece of advice makes me want to follow my instincts.
I can sometimes rely on an existing person, I always change details on my paintings, I change it, it becomes something else or multiple, all of this while listening to my inner voice.
10. Can you tell us something about yourself that people might be surprised to learn?
I am self-taught, I have never taken any art class. I see an empty canvas and I have no idea what I'm going to do.
But as soon as I touch my brush and open a tin of paint, I surprise myself, put myself in some kind of trance, everything unfolds, I know exactly what I want to do, and I know where I'm going.
11. Do you have a story you can tell us about this collaboration?
Fun fact: the canvas that was used for the set of bed linen and which is intended to be present in many bedrooms was, originally, a personal canvas that I had displayed... in my own room!