The Jval rock and pop music festival begins tomorrow Thursday 25th and continues until Saturday 27th August. This festival is the last of the local outdoor music festivals and take places amongst the vineyards above Begnins. It’s a great venue for music lovers to end the summer season and to soak up both the lovely scenery. There is a variety of music concerts on the programme this year including that of Lausanne funk and soul band Professor Wouassa (see Living in Nyon’s review here of when they played at Paléo this year). Free transport is provided by the festival from Nyon and Gland railway station to and from the festival. For full details and programme of Jval, see site here
Slow down for children. No more free parking in central Nyon at midday.
This week saw school children return to school in the public system. Most private schools open their doors next week. Here in Switzerland, many children walk to school or take public transport and drivers may have noticed the posters along the roadside in the public information campaign “Merci de t’arrêter pour moi” – ” Thankyou for stopping for me”. This is a reminder from the police to drivers to slow down and take extra caution. On Monday in Morges, a local police officer was handing out car screen wipes to the public to remind drivers to take extra caution and to ensure they have clear visibility and to keep a safe distance from children walking and cycling to school.
Note: Parking in Nyon – From the 1st September there will be no more free parking over the lunch time period at the Place Perdtemps car park in central Nyon. Parking fees will also be increased.
Below – Interview with artist Christine Collet.
Here is the first in a series of interviews with local artists who either live in the Vaud or Geneva area. These interviews are being held by Stephanie Fonteyn, an artist herself who lives in Duillier and who runs creative art classes (see previous post on Stephanie here).
Stephanie begins this series with an interview on artist Christine Collet. Christine will be exhibiting her work at the Clinique de Genolier from the 5th September to the 5th November 2011.
Christine is Swiss (born in Bern) and lives in Montreux. She lived in South Korea and Mexico before settling back down in Switzerland. She has a studio in Montreux and gives art courses to adults and children.
Christine entered the world of painting at a very young age thanks to her grandfather, a painter, who she lived with during part of her childhood. For Christine, the paintbrush is a magical tool that allows her to enter into her imaginary world. She is like a storyteller who uses a paintbrush and colour versus one who uses words.
Stephanie: “Could you describe a little bit more about your work?”
Christine: “ I use two different techniques; Stucco (a material made of an aggregate, a binder and water) to create organic looking coloured abstract monochromes, and acrylics to create dream-like imaginary worlds. I both mediums I am searching for a sense of harmony.”
Stephanie: “How would you describe your style?”
Christine: “Free, figurative versus abstract, metaphoric, expressing a personal vision that is suggestive rather than imposing.”
Stephanie: “What made you decide to use Stucco as a medium?”
Christine: “I like the organic feel that stucco can give. I saw a painting in a gallery that used stucco and I knew that was the material I wanted to use in my paintings, and so I trained in this technique.
Stephanie: “When did you decide to become an artist?”
Christine: “I knew I wanted to paint at the age of 8 years. Due to various circumstances, I started painting later on in life and didn’t have the possibility to study art at school as I would have liked.”
Stephanie: “When did you decide to become an artist?”
Christine: “A friend gave me my first box of paints in her garden in 1997.”
Stephanie: “What’s your strongest memory of your childhood that has influenced you as an artist?”
Christine: “My grandfather was a painter, and I was fascinated by his studio and his paintings. We were not allowed to touch anything, just watch, and for me it was a magical world. The theme of houses and imaginary worlds in my acrylic paintings are influenced by my childhood association to home; which is a place where you receive love, a place of exchange, where you can grow physically and emotionally. It’s about the heart of the home rather than the appearance of the home.”
Stephanie: “What do you like about your work?”
Christine: “It’s like a sound coming out of my mouth, I don’t know what sound is going to come out, but it comes out. There is a feeling of happiness and freedom of expression,”
Stephanie: “What do you dislike about your work?”
Christine: “The impression that I sometimes cannot transmit on canvas the feeling I want, it is as if the canvas resists. This sensation is very frustrating.”
Stephanie: “How do you overcome this?
Christine: “I put the painting aside and later on, try again and again. Using with time, or a maturation process, I can later get to the expression I was looking for.”
Stephanie: “Where do your ideas come from? Would you tell us something about your artistic process?”
Christine: “My paintings are stories, colours and imaginary worlds. My ideas come from all the things I have seen on my travels, living in different countries.”
Stephanie: “What is your greatest ambition as an artist?”
Christine: “I would like to paint an enormous painting that is bigger than me, at least two metres by two metres. It would be an abstract painting that gives me the sense of entering a story or another world.”
Stephanie: “Like Alice in Wonderland?”
Christine: “Yes!”
Stephanie: “Have you won any artistic awards?”
Christine: “Yes, I won the second prize for a metaphoric painting in May 2011 at the Forum in Hotel de Ville, Lausanne.”
Stephanie: “What are you working on at present?”
Christine: “I have two upcoming exhibitions that I am preparing a series of stucco paintings called “Aspects végétales” one of which will be at the Montreux Art Gallery in November.
Stephanie: “When and where can we next see your paintings?”
Christine: “At the Clinique Genolier from the 5th of September until the 5th of November 2011 or MAG (Montreux Art Gallery) from the 10th to the 14th of November 2011″.