- Aug 12

Sophie Dumont

Sophie Dumont is a contemporary painter who has been exhibiting in France consistently since 1998. She is the granddaughter of artist Henriette Dumont from whom she drew inspiration from. Sophie has been featured in solo exhibitions over the years with Gallery Place des Arts in Caen and recent museum exhibitions include features at Coutances Museum and Charles Leandre Museum. Recent gallery shows include showings at Gallery Indian Summer, Belart Gallery, and Croisers Gallery. Sophie has also been critically written by art critic Francois Laune.

The entire portfolio of paintings range in subjects from landscapes, libraries, sea paintings, studios, abstract, nudes, horses, and trees. For the purposes of the article we will focus on Sophie’s libraries and studio paintings. These two particular collections of works instill a sense of solid structure and discipline of geometry. The subjects of libraries and studios are not interesting because of their inherent meaning but rather because their structure contains fascinating compositional components. Sophie can be described as a painter more interested in the how rather than the what, how she approaches her art remains more important than the conceptual meaning of her subject. In essence, we can describe the paintings as art for art’s sake, a study in form, structure, paint, and surface to be appreciated in their purest forms.

Containing areas of condensity and smaller areas of negative space, the studio and library paintings reveal a sense of appreciation for form and the study of breaking down subject matter down to their most basic components. The paintings cannot be described as completely abstract or abstracted because of their accurate depiction of outlined shapes, nor can they be totally regarded as representational because they also lack shadow or light to define form. Somewhere in between accuracy and exaggeration, the paintings convey thick smears of paint separated by tonal qualities of neutral tones, bright colors, and off-whites. Overall the studio paintings tend to be the stronger series because there remains more variation in shapes while the libraries series contains more predictable and symmetrical elements.

Blue Workshop (pictured above) remains one of Sophie’s most compositionally perfect paintings. The work draws the viewer’s eye in two triangle directions and an upside down T. Containing minimal color application, the painting just contains variation of blue, white, and a slight hint of yellow ochre. Like a classical symphony, the piece goes from delicate smaller geometric square shapes to larger rectangles hitting a high note.

Sophie Dumont paints like a classical symphony conductor or soprano opera singer with her compositions and geometry reaching both treble and flat notes. She remains a complex painter who reveals deep respect for the surface and texture of the paint. With an intrinsic installation of emphasis on flatness and design, Sophie Dumont brings the viewer closer to a deeper appreciation for the art of painting with her sophisticated brushwork and composited structural layout.