We recently connected with Gianne De Genevraye and have shared our conversation below.

Gianne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

After 4 years at UCI in the fine arts department during the minimalist period, I came away without fundamental skills in art. After the life changing loss of my husband, I decided to aquire the skills I needed to be able to paint what I saw. I worked with a maestro in Paris, where I was living, for 5 years.
In art, I have seen that if one doesn’t have the technical skill, there is always a point which you cannot go further.
But still, after having aquired the skills to paint, my identity of a “contemporary artist” kept me from painting what I really wanted to paint: gardens.
On the final workshop with my maestro, we were at my home in the countryside of France. I told him I wanted to paint my garden, but couldn’t because of that identity. He insisted I try. After five paintings -in five days- he told me that it was abundantly clear this was what I should be doing, and was the most natural for me. His validation gave me the courage to change direction and become a painter of gardens around the world.

Gianne, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born and raised in Southern California and was always in a state of marvel by the beauty of nature that surrounded me. I studied art and music in school, then in 1986 after my BFA at Univeristy of California Irvine, I moved to France to be closer to the incredible collections of art and the beauty of France. I married a frenchman, and restored his 18th century chateau.
After a revelation with my painting at a workshop with my maestro, I pursued my art practice in a new direction. I started painting my own garden.
To come to the idea what, how, and where I was going to work, I used the four strategies for finding one’s path; know what you want to do, acquire the skills to do it, find where you are wanted, then share what you do. I knew I wanted to paint, and had acquired the skills to do it. The hardest part was finding where I belonged with my painting. Where could I paint the beauty that surrounds us, where the maximum of people can see it? My answer was GARDENS, in fact, PUBLIC GARDENS. And I would exhibit the paintings onsite at the gardens, and donate a painting to each institution that welcomed me.
I made my first request to paint in a public garden at the Casa Romantica in San Clemente, CA and was accepted. Other garden ‘residencies’ followed that lasted anywhere from 2 weeks to 5 months (see my website gianne.org)
I have completed over 25 garden residencies around the world in the US, France, Italy, the UK, Japan, and Mexico. I also am invited to private gardens to do commissions for my clients. I invented this way of working, and implement this created business model by myself. I am painting my passion, the beauty of our world, and sharing my vision with a wide audience. The World is my Canvas.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being a painter gives me the opportunity to share my vision of the world, in a world where most people are focussed on other things such as screens and phones, we are forgetting to look around ourselves. Painting gives a true sense of harmony with the world, a timelessness when I’m in the creative zone that continues to surprise me. Seeing the world as art gives me distance and perspective, and seeing myself in this world brings me serenity.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I had learned the basic skills of drawing and perspective in my early education. It would have been so helpful on my journey had classes been provided in school. This is something that is missing in public school ciriculum in the US, and could be addressed at around age 8, when a child is no longer satisfied with their drawings and are ready to learn the skill. I spent years making up for this lack of knowledge.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gianne.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giannedegenevraye/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gdegenevraye.artist
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/@gdegenevraye
• Youtube: @giannedegenevraye9079
• Other: member of LPAPA, CAC, Maison des Artists, OCCCA