From a solitary two-story concrete structure adrift on a wooded mountain top under a powder blue sky save where far over distant hills lies a mass of almost pure white clouds illumined by a band of gold light from the setting sun, the vast expanse of the Provence profonde stretches out like an endless green rug of verdant earth. Five miles down the slope is the village of Mane in the department Les Alpes-de-Haute–Provence, one of the most sparsely populated territories in France.
This Saturday evening the austere building has become a pop-up art gallery where the painter Dominique Paulin, whose high ceiling premises serve as an atelier and a summer residence, is showing her works until Friday, August 30.
Starting at six-thirty, guests come winding up a sinuously steep gravel road to where the oak forest gives way to a cleared away crest to be greeted by a casually chic-attired Ms. Paulin, before they dutifully take their place on a large terrace with plates overflowing with salmon, ratatouille, taboulé and salads from an ample spread.
A notable and fashionable crowd, a salade mixte of Provence and Paris 7eme, has been cast by Vincent Beouf, a puppet master of haute société in these parts. There is the esteemed psychologist and writer Jacques Salomé – ready to engage wittingly into his disagreement with the philosopher Michel Onfray’s takedown of Freud, the smartly dressed Laura Skoler, a New Museum Board of Trustee, and the munificent supporter of the arts Christine-Ruiz Picasso, who is putting together two recitals next weekend at the Chapelle Saint-Ferréol in Viens.
With the laying out of sucreries – chocolate mousse, tiramisu and ice creams – came along a piano – violin duet of Debora Seffer and Thierry Maillard, whose jazzy notes wafted delicately in the large salon, and then a late hour power surge – the dizzying fingers of the across-the-board musical genres pianist Jean François Zygel. Une soirée bouche bée.
The arc of the painting career of Dominique Paulin has experienced a recent ascent as steep as the road up to her atelier, having been put off until the last five years as Ms Paulin practiced medicine in Paris, although always under the sway of her artistic genes having been born into a family of creators – her father was a celebrity designer – genes which have now reasserted themselves by a devotion to the prodigious coloring of canvasses.
The large formats of Dominique Paulin reveal an overlaying of colors, lending a transparency of richness to the canvas. Here is a selection from the works on display until August 30:
Last year, Dominique Paulin exhibited her works in New Delhi, India, in an exhibition “Bonjour India” organized by the French Embassy and the IHC Visual Arts Gallery. Vimeo
Basics:
Dominique Paulin: Website;
The exhibit of Dominique Paulin runs until Friday, August 30 by appointment by Tel: 06 60 64 01 24, or Email: paulin.dominique@club-internet.fr
Address: Les Hautes Plaines – 04300 Mane,17 km from Manaosque, 4 km from Forcalquier. DIrections by Email.
Photo: Dominique Paulin (c.) with guests