Sylvie Chadourne

is born in France (Lille), on the 11th of march 1967. She is 9 years old when her family moves to the French Riviera. As far as she can remember, Sylvie has always been attracted to colours and could not pass by an art supply store without staring at the window shop with glittering eyes. Sylvie starts on her artistic adventure with 13 years old, when her father gives her some negative films and lends her his photo camera. She is so captivated by the art of photography that she decides to learn the laboratory work with professionals photographers, thanks to an "Atelier of Art" founded by her school. As a teenager, her interests also go to writing, singing, philosophy and psychology, a field she will study later at the University of Nice.  

Sylvie believes that most of our aspirations are revealed to us when we are at the dawn of our lives. When she is 14, she tours Egypt with her parents. She comes back with unforgettable memories, particularly of the fascinating hues of the desert skies, and an unquenchable thirst for travelling. With 19 years old, she decides to stop her academic psychology studies to travel to the French West Indies and to south America, as much for the pleasure of discovering an elsewhere as for self-knowledge. There, she designs and sells jewels using natural materials, such as polished coconut shell, fish scales, coral and silver.

Two years later (in 1989), back to Europe, Sylvie starts attending the art studio and lessons of the great French surreal artist Richard MERIC. She learns how to draw, as well as oil painting classical technique,thanks to books and friendly advises from great painters. Three years later, because of a back injury that makes it very painful for her to keep sitting for hours, she comes back to Fine Art Photography and completes her knowledge of the Art and Technique of Photography. Nature becomes her favourite subject. Later on, she produces a new series of drawings, experimenting different medium such as charcoal, sanguine and dry pastels.  

Her graphic style is akin to Surrealism, but her paintings illustrating her strong bond to Nature are foremost narrative, laden with feeling, and as mastered as poetry. Her favorite painters are René Magritte, Salvador Dali, Caravaggio, Caspard David Friedrich, JMW Turner and Claude Monet. At that time, she successfully participates to collective and solo art exhibitions, in Hambourg (Germany), in Antibes (France) and in Marbella (Spain).  

With 32 years old, Sylvie settles down in Spain (Marbella) where she teaches herself how to use a computer, again thanks to books. At the time, her goal is to build her own website to showcase her artworks, but she gets so passionate about it that she becomes a professional web designer. Meanwhile, Sylvie keeps on the Visual Arts path, combining Photography, Painting, Drawing and Digital art. 

With 41 years old, getting a bit bored with the computer work, Sylvie accomplishes a long time dream becoming a singer and a musician (acoustic guitar and recorder flute). Despite her talent as a singer-songwriter, she does not wishes to make a career out of it. Music plays an important role in complementing her education of the sense of harmony and rhythm. (Check our band: Sylandric)

In 2013, Sylvie craves travel again. Discovering the new opportunity of house and pet sitting, she embarks on a several years journey that will take her to Croatia, Italy, France, Spain, Costa Rica, Canada, the USA, and Bolivia. Travelling will boost her inspiration and will give her the impulse to start on a new adventure with the Watercolour medium, which versatility has been a revelation for her, leading the artist to a celebration of her long 'Romantic Contemplation visual quest', as she likes to call it. "Romanticism, a cultural movement that appeared in Europe at the end of the 18th century, is characterized by the will of the artist to explore all the possibilities of art in order to express one's moods: it is thus a reaction of feeling against reason, exalting mystery and fantasy and seeking escape and delight in dreams, the morbid and the sublime, the exotic and the past, the ideal or the nightmare of a passionate and melancholy sensibility."

Education and Exhibitions

Sylvie Chadourne is a self-taught artist: drawer, painter, digital artist, photographer and musicina.

Studies & Degrees:

1984: College 'Amiral de Grasse' - Grasse ( F) | Baccalaureate "Economic and Social Sciences"

1984-1986: University of Nice - Nice ( F) | Degree in Psychology (D.E.U.G)

Languages spoken: French, Spanish, English, and some German.

List of solo exhibitions:

1992- Reese Gallery - Oil paintings and Drawings (Hamburg, Germany)

1996- Klein Heinrich Gallery – Photography (Glückstadt, Germany)

1998- Galerie du Moulin – Photography exhibition + audio-visual show based on Syl’s photographs (Grasse, France)

2003- Kiosque des Arts - Oil paintings and Drawings (Cannes, France)

2007 - Prado23 - Digital art / Giclée (Marbella-Spain)

List of collective exhibitions:

1991- Galeria Llamas - Oil paintings and Drawings (Marbella, Spain)

1994- Sophia-Antipolis Gallery - Oil paintings (Antibes, France)

1994 - Marché d'Art du Musée Picasso - Oil paintings and Drawings (Antibes, France)

1995- Reese Gallery - Oil paintings and Drawings (Hamburg, Germany)

1997- Glückstadt Kino - Oil paintings, Drawings and Photographs (Glückstadt, Germany)

2000- Reese Gallery - Oil paintings, Drawings and Photographs (Hamburg, Germany)

2003- Kiosque des Arts - Oil paintings and Drawings (Cannes, France)