• Celine Raphael-Leygues

    Education

    Studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, atelier Maurice Brianchon. ( 1961-1968 ).

    Honors

    • 1970 – Prix de Collioure
    • 1972 – Societaire du Salon des Independants
    • 1980 – Elected Societaire of Salon des Artistes Francais ( le Salon )
    • 1981 – Selected for Prix Paul Louis Weiller a l’Institut de France
    • 1988 – Societaire of the Fondationa du Baron Taylor
    • 1989 – Societaire of the Salon d’Automne.
    • 1989 – Medaille des Amis en Agenais
    • 1992 – Societaire of the Salon International des Beaux-Arts (INSBA )
    • 1997 – Societaire of the Nationale des Beaux-Arts ( NBA )
    • 1997 – Medaille d’Argent Arts Sciences Lettres
    • 1989 – Elected Dallas Texas Visual Art Association Signature Member
    • 2001 – Was commissioned by the City of Dallas for the Pegasus Project

    Bibliography

    • 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 Fine Arts in Dallas Art Engagement Books, Jennifer I. Culbertson, et.al., Editors
    • “UN SIECLE D’ART MODERNE ” Histoire du Salon des Independants .1884 – Ed. Delanoel
    • QUAND LE VINGTIEME SIECLE ETAIT CONTE PAR DES INCONNUS – L”Histoire du Salon d’Automne de 1903 a nos jours ( Paris: Patrick E Barrer, Arts et Images du Monde, 1985 )
    • Who’s Who in International Art ( 1991 )
    • International guide 1996 ( Patrick Sermadiras, 1996.
    • International Art Guide, Artistes et Ateliers ( Sermadiras, 1997 )
    • “Dallas Soars ” Project : Pegasus 2001 ( Paris : Interep, 2001 )
    • Works in Toulouse and Rochefort/Mer Museums and in private collections

    Artist Statement

    Art is a gift : it is given to us. Art fills us with pure energetic vibrations which raise one’s soul, I feel that the artist has a mission to add to the Universal Thought, making planet Earth a better world. Art is a universal language, is curative and brings beauty and magic, and is a place for infinite expressions of creation.

    I am a figurative artist. and Art is the SUN OF MY LIFE. I always experience something new, in tones, composition, graphics, ambiance, a different color, a strange light, a lovely gesture, a smile, and here is a new piece! Sometimes I re-live the moment through the challenge of another medium. I usually work in oil, but sometimes in acrylic, pastel, mosaic, ceramic, engraving, sculpture or fused glass. I also create jewelry, so I might add beads and semi-precious stones to my mosaic. Having been raised among art and artists, creating always seemed to me as natural as eating or breathing. At age 12, my encouraging parents gave me my first set of oil painting and an artist friend, my first art lessons. From age 18 to 26, I studied in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in the Atelier of Maurice Brianchon.

    Since 1980, I have lived and worked in Dallas and France. I believe that it is important for an artist to keep his “child’s eye”, so he can keep rediscovering and wondering at the beauty of his surroundings. l have so much fun living and then recreating simple moments of life which have touched my heart. Often these moments are captured while traveling in foreign lands, and introduce a different point of view or another truth.