A short biography
Sylviane Leblond was born in Dordogne, studied at the Sorbonne (Paris) to become a teacher; yet, from childhood she always had a passion for drawing and painting.
She has been painting on silk for more than 20 years now, among which portraits of the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, landscapes, still life pictures, etc.., which, as we know, has always been a tradition for Chinese Masters.
After 2 trips across China, she was determined to try Chinese painting. So, once back home, she was eager to find a teacher, a Master and she found Mr LI Zhongyao, who has been teaching for years now in the « Chinese Cultural Center » in Paris.
In 2011, she was selected to exhibit at the « Salon du Dessin et de la Peinture à l'Eau » (Art en Capital ) in the Grand Palais, Paris.
International Salons offered to exhibit her works, either personally or collectively : Galeries Thuillier, Mona Lisa, de Nesle, Salon du Puy en Velay, where she got a « prize of Excellence », Salon du Val d'Or in Meillant where she won the « prize Valentin Ponseti » for her Flowers, etc...She exhibited in Japan (Amagasaki and Okinawa) in Canada ( Toronto); in Belgium (Brügge); in Italy :( Rome). She is considered as an « emergent artist ».
When she paints, either on silk or on rice paper, it is for her a kind of challenge : each brush-stroke must be rigorous technically and mentally because it is unique and it is impossible to repent.
She must combine definite technique and instinct, concentration of the mind and 'free-and-easiness', observation of nature and inventiveness.
This kind of painting is for her an « art of living », a sort of meditation, a quest of the inner life of the elements she paints (flowers, animals, landscapes) and of her own self.
It is that exacting feeling, this absolute submisiveness to rules, this concentration of the mind, which paradoxically lead to a total « freedom of artistic creation ».
As François Cheng writes : « More than an object to look at, a picture is to LIVE.»
Sylviane Leblond's aim in life is to share her passion, the very personal vision she has of nature through a great variety of flowers (roses, peonies, puppies, iris, bignonia, lotus, orchids bamboos, Japanese blossoming apple-trees, etc..), animals, coloured or black ink landscapes.. all in the free style (Xieyi) of the chinese tradition.
