New gallery open in Cookham
If you're out and about in the village over the next weeks, make sure you pop into the new Irene Laksine Gallery on the High Street in Cookham.
The gallery opened two weeks ago in what used to be the Selkirk Art gallery on Cookham High Street.
Sally Perigo and her husband, Kevin, represent the fantastic French artist Irène Laksine, who paints in her top-floor studio in Paris where she has lived for about 40 years. Irène was talent spotted as an artist in her young teens by no other than Pablo Picasso, and he encouraged her to follow her dream of being an artist. She is classically trained having studied at both the College of Arts Décoratifs of Nice and then at the college of Beaux Arts of Paris. She studied classical painting but her true passion was for abstract art.
Irène has exhibited widely in France over the years, but never before in the UK. She is a very talented and highly skilled artist, producing abstract art in a variety of styles and different mediums. She does all sizes of oil on canvas paintings, but also creates very funky modern art using acrylic paints on large transparent PVC sheets, as well as montages made from oil strips laid onto small PVC sheets… you really need to see it to fully understand and appreciate her works of art!
Irène is a master of colour and her works are very vibrant. Lots of her oil paintings have evolved over many years. If she is not completely happy with her paintings she puts them away and then comes back to them another time until she is satisfied. The story is told on the rear of the canvases, with dates recorded and then crossed out, and also by the weight of the canvasses as she continues to paint, adding layer upon layer of oils until the colour and texture pleases her.
There are a number of Irène’s artworks on display at the gallery. Whilst all the artworks are originals, there's a limited-edition range of pure silk scarves from some of Irène’s acrylic on PVC paintings, which are absolutely stunning and beautiful to wear. They are wearable art!
On show are also some unique sculptures from an upcoming sculptor called Stalin George.
Everyone is welcome at the gallery, whether you are looking to buy or just to appreciate the art.
Visit http://irenelaksine.co.uk