Céline Lyaudet
- Anna Lilli Garai
- Nov 11
- 4 min read
Céline Lyaudet is a French artist based near Rennes. Trained in set design, she approaches painting as a constructed space where figures and symbols are arranged with theatrical precision. The surface acts as a stage, a place where visions from dreams, walks in nature, and states of focused attention take form. Her process is shaped by ritual. She prepares her own pigments and binders, often using plant and mineral materials, linking the act of painting to older forms of making. Works such as "Solstice" and "As Above So Below" reflect this approach. In these pieces, layered gestures reflect the essence of both place and time.
Q: You started in set design and scenography. What part of that background still shows up in your paintings?
A: What remains of this professional experience is the notion of inhabited space. The space of painting is like a theater stage. Each element has a symbolic significance or modifies the composition, the audience vision. Each painting is a stage on which characters/entities appear, act, speak, shout or sing. Theater-painting space as an ancient ritual that features imaginary or divine beings.
Q: How did the idea of painting as ritual first come to you?
A: I am interested in the study of ethnography of shamanic rituals and cave art. The act of creation through the medium of drawing, painting or sculpting is often linked to a magical ritual and beliefs (animism for example).
The act of painting, of giving outlines to the vision of a spirit, makes it exist in reality. I was influenced by these ancient artists but also by spirit artists like Hilma af Klint or performing artist Ana Mendieta. The act of painting requires a certain state of mind (between letting go and control) and a commitment of the body (I paint standing up).
As I practice, I invented my own ritual which allows me to bring into existence on paper the beings that populate my dreams or my visions.
Q: In “Solstice,” you talk about chaos turning into form. Does that mirror how you work in general?
A: Yes, my paintings often start that way. Sometimes they are structured from the beginning but generally they emerge from a chaos of colors and drips. That's where a bit of the magic lies. A priori, I don't really know which path the painting will take, I like to discover it during the journey.
Q: “As Above So Below” plays with opposites and reflection. What drew you to that idea?
A: In “As Above So Below”, the light figure at the top appeared first. As the outlines of it were defined, the drips of yellow and then black paint made a sort of inverted reflection emerge. It would be said that accidents are an integral component of the process, even if for me they are not really accidental; the painting traces its own path and I try to see in which direction it wishes to take me. When the two figures Above and Below were inscribed in an organic medallion form, this phrase came to me and I thought it makes sense for this painting.
Q: You mix your own pigments and materials. What changes when you work with something you’ve made by hand?
A: Making my own paint is part of my creative ritual. The materials or binders assembled in the paint allow the paint to be "charged" symbolically but also in terms of viscosity due to the assembly of the different elements. This concept of assembly is present in the making of fetishes or objects intended to represent an entity in shamanic cultures (to give it a body, a soul, a voice). For me, making paint is like magic cooking or witchcraft. The materials differ depending on the feeling at the time of painting.
I use animal or plant materials which are for me symbolic of a place of a spirit: dry ink, wood ash, earth and pigments with casein binder or vegetal oil.
Q: Do your visions always begin the same way, or do they catch you by surprise?
A: There are several types of visions. Some come from dreams and I then write them down to try not to forget anything. Others occur during long walks or hikes in the forest or on the coastal path when the body in motion and the feeling of nature put the mind in a kind of trance, freed from rational thought. These images are very quick glimpses that are sometimes difficult to remember. Finally, there are the visions that appear during the creative process. I generally listen to the same piece of music that allows me to reach this particular state of concentration/relaxation. They are sometimes a reminiscence of a dream that occurred before or they are completely new and spontaneous. There are no rules because I work with this very moving “vision” material.
