Nadine Defer | Contemporary Artist: Artworks & Biography

Nadine left the north of France to settle in the Var region in 1983. She worked as a nurse for over thirty years without, however neglecting her artistic activities. From 2000 to 2010, she participated in numerous art fairs and won several awards, and art has remained present in her professional as well as personal life. She teaches art workshops with patients suffering from mental disorders. \n Multi-talented, Nadine has mastered many techniques. Her father, who was a ceramist, taught her to work with clay, and she discovered watercolours at Vincent Puig’s workshop and contemporary painting with Jean-Pierre Torcolti. She attended workshops at the School of Fine Arts in Draguignan and Toulon.\n In 2010, she left her job to dedicate herself entirely to painting. She stopped exhibiting in order to create a finished and coherent body of work. \n Drawing occupies a prominent place in her artistic approach. A quick sketch is enough to give rise to her subject and for it to come alive. Her principal sources of inspiration are the masters such as: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French painter, nineteenth century), Egon Schiele (Austrian painter, nineteenth and twentieth centuries), Martin Kippenberger (German artist twentieth century), Lydie Arickx (French artist), Franta (French painter of Czech origin). But drawing is not the only important element on the canvas. Colour makes numerous appearances in touches highlighting the presence of a sovereign stroke. \n Nadine draws body fragments with strong sensuality from live models. She focuses on mundane details, opting for a close up view. This photographic framing allows her to highlight the curves of the body: the arch of a foot, the articulation of a hand or the eroticism of a female bust. The way she uses colour allows her to modestly deal with the nudity. Through the broad layers of bright paint she interposes a discreet veil between the model and the observer.