Anouk Mariacci
Anouk is French, born in Nice in the beautiful south of France. Her love for sketching and collaging goes back to her childhood but only ever remained a hobby, a secretly loved one. She studied business and marketing and worked for most of her career in marketing since she moved to London in 2002.
2017 was a huge shift in her life due to her son being unwell. She left her job to support him and turned to art as her therapy through difficult times. She has not looked back since and has been able to reinvent herself through art. “Things happen for a reason” and she has embraced and developed her practice in the last few years, participating in some press features, charity auctions and local exhibitions.
Her paintings are a reflection of her current state of mind and are purely instinctive.
Her flower ladies collection is a reflection of her journey with her son, representing both herself as a woman/mother and her son’s pain transformed in a colourful manner with golden aura and flowers.
Her abstract collages are a tale of modern life and constant disruption we all experience. These abstracts all tell a story through the choice of papers used, the era they come from, what the image depicts or the meaning of the words on the papers. All come together to create a unique image of what the world is throwing at us.
From landscapes to portraits, collages to abstract expressionism, her style is varied, can feel disruptive or calm, a reflection of who she is.
Her first love is drawing with charcoal, pencils and sepia. There is something quite sensory about drawing as detail and patience are key to make a drawing come to life. Painting has been a welcome discovery opening up a whole new world of colours, textures, tools and media. She likes textures so was instinctively drawn to mixed media. Collages, thick paints, drips, drops, splashes, digging into piles of books and magazines and paper textures collected over time, using household items to paint with, having more flexibility with movement and working on different scales. Endless possibilities.