Gabriela Meunié
ARTIST DIARIES. WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE ARTIST BORDEAUX FRANCE WWW.GABRIELAMEUNIE.COM @GABRIELAMEUNIE.NEWWORK
My name is Gabriela Meunié and I am 36 years old. I was born in Mallorca and lived in the small village of Es Llombards, next to the most beautiful coves of Mallorca. I currently live and work in Bordeaux, France. I live with my partner Gaspard and our 5-year-old son Pablo. Gaspard built our little house in the Pyrenees by hand, where we live totally isolated, without neighbours, in a place that allows us to experience time and space in a different way, surrounded by nature, foxes, roe deer and wild boars.
I am not a big fan of art theories, but I am totally committed to the research of new artistic techniques. I believe that in painting, modification of technique inevitably leads to modification of form. That interests me. My father was a painter. Our family lived from his art. I grew up watching my father work in his studio, his paintings, his technique, his colours, the relationship he had with his clients. I have painted all my life. I studied art at high school in Palma de Mallorca and then I did my degree at the Massana School of Art and Design in Barcelona.
I am currently working from a very large studio in the city of Bordeaux, where I can work surrounded by light. It is the perfect studio for painting. I need to be 100% concentrated, forced to be in the present moment so as not to lose the thread, constantly evaluating the composition, colour, movement, intensity and the intention of the gesture to obtain a final result that I am happy with. Painting fills my soul with joy.
In my painting, I am like I am in my personal life. The search for beauty is very important to me. I like to surround myself with beauty, and I think that unconsciously I need to transmit beauty. Of course, beauty is subjective, what is beautiful to me may not be beautiful to someone else.
I don’t consider life to be simply beautiful or easy, things are the way they are. It is the intention we put into things, to make them the way they are. The ugly, the sad and the difficult is also part of the search for my own beauty.
I always make the canvases myself, even the big ones. Creating my own canvas gives me the impression that I am creating the work completely. I also create my own colours from pigments. This gives me the option of thickening or diluting the paint, which is very important for the way I work. Each colour has its own soul. I usually have several paintings on the go. This allows me to take the necessary observation time and to know when to stop.
What I like the most is to make big paintings, to lose myself in the canvas. The bigger the painting, the greater the challenge and the greater my motivation. I have a need to work with urgency, I don’t allow myself to get bored and I hate wasting time, I prefer it to be fast, strong and controlled. For me, art is an integral part of my life.
