Emilie Arnoux is a French artist who specializes in vividly depicted poolside, beach, and seaside-themed paintings. Her work is inspired by 1950s and 1960s American “good vibrations” Art Deco styles. In this interview, she talks about how growing up on the Norman beach influenced her aesthetic perceptions and future creative approach, her pop culture inspirations, and the simple pleasures that she hopes to invoke with her work.

Her recent paintings are currently being shown in the “Poolside” exhibition at Fremin Gallery in New York through October 31, 2020.

Interview by Michele Simcox

You grew up in and currently live in Normandy, France but your work is saturated in nostalgic, American, Beach Boys vibes. What made you choose the Art Deco style of America’s 1950s-60s sun and surf lifestyle aesthetic? Was there something in particular that made you fall in love with that American time period stylistically?

I grew up on the Norman beach. My childhood was a few meters from the sand and the sea, and water activities were very early a passion. As a child, I had a sensitive and aesthetic perception of things very early. In the 1980s, there was a TV show called The Last Season in France that rebroadcast old Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. The photography, the lighting, the saturated Technicolor of these films fascinated me above all else. The sharpness of the lines and the decoupage of the Art Deco shadows touched me. There was in these films a joy of life and a freshness that delighted the six-year-old girl that I was. The beach — my favorite playground — became the scene of my projections in this world in Technicolor, and the Norman Art Deco seaside architecture became the link between my world and the dreamed world of America that I saw in the films.

At the age of ten, I discovered that this [Art Deco aesthetic] existed on paper as advertising [design] and I started collecting old magazine prints such as the Madson Line, Pan Am...They were telling me about the joy of living in America [and it] made me dream. When I became a teenager, I slowly left the glamorous sweetened musical comedy of the 1940s and 1950s for films and pop and surf images in the 1960s, full of references to the nautical sports I used to do. Surf, sailing, beach, sun and pop culture were my teenage benchmarks.

Over time, I have refined my references. I have known plastic artists, photographers, pop culture musicians. My eyes [have] sharpened. I visited several periods and expressions while keeping with my line: water and sea. However, I have always kept in mind what made me want to create and which was born from my meeting with American culture from the 1940s to 1960s: the wonder of the power of the image to be able to make life happy or change the perception of life just by contemplation. All human beings are experiencing challenges, but the ability to absorb images of small or great happiness in itself can be good when the desire to live goes.

I like the idea of creating this reminder. I notice that the more anxious the [current] social context, the more the works I produce with the intensity of joy. For example, I started the series of smiles (e.g. “Fresh”) in the middle of the current [pandemic] containment. These are probably my paintings whose energy is most positive. I had this sudden desire to blow up joy, but I didn't know how these paintings could be seen. They could have been felt as indecent or provocative for the few people who were passing by my windows, in the deserted and silent city…Finally, I received a lot of messages and thanks for the comfort they brought. That was wonderful. That is exactly why I paint.

Your painting style is very bold and intimate, swathed in clean lines and bright, pastel colors. You paint particular moments in time meant to invoke feelings of happiness, paradise, relaxation etc. and your work, as a whole, has been compared to David Hockney’s. Did you know who he was prior to you starting your art career? Was there any research or planning involved in terms of theme and style choice? Were the similarities between his and your work intentional?

It always surprises people when I say I'm not inspired by David Hockney. My references go back to childhood and are therefore simpler. I only knew Hockney late in building my aesthetic universe. When I am asked if I am inspired by Hockney, I always say: it is not Hockney that inspires me, it is pools, that is all.…In the end, I do not mind [the comparison] of course, because it is flattering [and] it inspires in me the greatest respect.

However, my message is clearly speaking of vibrant and beneficial energy, [while] it seems to me that Hockney’s work is talking about a certain distance…I personally feel a certain [distance which] makes his work powerful, but in which I do not find in myself. I think that when the observer stops on the subject because it seems to them that the subject is based on a reference, they may be missing the deep meaning of a work and its true history.

I like observers without artistic culture (including children) because they go directly to the heart of the work, its energy. No interference. In my paintings, there is my intention, but there is, above all, my energy. My intention is clearly to create a strong well-being, but I am more able to do this by the energy I am planning than by the subject I am dealing with. That is why I am not so much into Hockney’s work — I paint pools (among other subjects) but the energy from my paintings is totally different from that of his paintings. On the other hand, the first time I got a photograph of Slim Aarons in front of my eyes, I remember my heart beat faster. I felt that it had been stolen from my soul. I quickly closed the book, like a child who had found a [forbidden] book, and I carefully avoided reopening it. I don't know why. Perhaps to avoid being inspired and influenced.

Living near a beach has influenced your work so tremendously that you set up your atelier near the sea. Would you ever see yourself moving to a city where the beach isn’t as accessible, or would that affect your mentality when it comes to the inspiration for your paintings? Do you think that your work has a particular audience? Do people in France relate to the American Art Deco beach theme, or did you paint with the intent to reach a foreign American audience?

The proximity of the sea directly influences my painting and I [never think] of living away from the sea for a moment. Although it is [now] clear that what allowed my painting to be born fully was my removal from the sea. When my parents decided to live in Paris, I was still a child. The frustration and idealization of life on the seaside that had made me so happy crystallized my creativity over [depicting] life on the seaside, which has continued until today. Today, however, I think that the energy from the seaside itself is [essential]. But it could be any sea, the Sea of Normandy or the Pacific.

You’ve mentioned “good vibrations” before when describing the theme/inspiration for your work. Are you a Beach Boys fan? Were you a fan [of theirs] before your work or have you become one over time?

“Good vibrations” is a term that I regularly use. More because it best summarizes the intention of my work rather than as a direct reference to the Beach Boys, even if they are an indispensable reference to the surf lifestyle. I listened to the Beach Boys to [get the impression of] the California coast, and that is a cliché, of course, but I love clichés! They are voluntarily omnipresent in my painting. The clichés are the modern symbolic.

Has language ever been an issue for you at any point in your creative process or journey? For example, when describing your work, do you first write about it in French and then translate it? If yes, does that influence the message that you intended to get across to your audience?

The mastery of the [English] language has not seemed to me to be a huge barrier during my travels. When I describe my work, I do it simultaneously in French and English. That is why my descriptions are short and simple, because my English may not be elaborate enough, but it is also because I do not like unnecessary [descriptions]. I prefer to leave space to the perception and interpretation of the observer. I find complicated titles and long descriptions egoistic and vain.

I paint without intent to reach either the French or Americans. I paint my own dreams and [I want] my own dreams touch people wherever they are. The consciousness that creates joy is universal. Childhood, sea, water, sun, family, color, laughter, freedom, movement…these are simple and universal values.

The American dream bears (among other things) these values. The whole world assigns these values to America. It is an “enthusiastic” country to which the sustainability of the “cool attitude,” i.e. putting an American flag above an ice cream truck, places the observer in a certain lifestyle, a certain ease and freedom to be and a joy to live. In this, my painting speaks to all cultures, because the “American dream” is a universal phantasm. My paintings are indeed well received by Americans, because of the enthusiasm they have for their own country and its [perceived] values. And that is wonderful.

You’ve described your artistic process to be as simple as grabbing your art supplies (pencils and paintbrushes) and heading to the beach to be inspired. Are there certain elements that you seek out in terms of compiling a composition for a painting? Your paintings follow the rule of thirds, where if you split your canvas into thirds vertically or horizontally there is something occupying each third. It’s a technique that makes everything seem asymmetrically harmonious and appealing to the eye. Was that intentional or was it a “happy accident”?

With my paintings, I wish to wake up simple feelings. I do not wish to short circuit the observer’s feelings. A work must speak for itself. Indeed, the rule of thirds is a matter of course in my paintings. It is neither intentional nor the fruit of happy chance, it is just instinctive. I have no systematic creative process.

The people featured in your paintings resonate in a way that makes them seem nostalgically familiar and personable in a warm, intimate atmosphere. Your paintings are photographic in a postcard-like fashion, in the sense that they are snapshots of life. Are these real people that you’ve witnessed at the beach in Normandy or are they inspired by other figures that you’ve then altered in your own way?

Some characters come from memories, scenes that touched me, others were quickly outlined on the beach and then ended in the workshop. Others were photographed, others were thought up in a whole compound scene. They can come from an image, a film, anything...sometimes they are the center of my composition and sometimes their place appears at the end of the work. They are sometimes completely created and sometimes drawn from models. They are dreams, people that are close to me, whom I have loved or simply watched. [Or] they are sometimes just an excuse or an alibi for the observer’s projection…

Emilie’s paintings are currently being shown in the “Poolside” exhibition at Fremin Gallery in New York through October 31, 2020.

View more of Emilie’s work on her site and Instagram.

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Michele Simcox has a BA in Art History, with a focus in Studio Art, from the University of Houston. She has worked in private art galleries, has been an art teacher, and she has worked as a photographer for Shutterfly. She would like you to know that climate change is a very serious issue and that you should read Hyperworlds, Underworlds by Jason Louv.

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