Christine ETCHEVERS

Born in Bayonne in 1953, Christine Etchevers concedes that she always wanted to become a painter.

As a child, she lived in Cambo, observed Pablo Tillac who intrigued her and developed a passion for drawing: yes, she would become a painter… for sure! Her academic training at the Academy of the Fine Arts in Paris and at the Academy of the Fine Arts in Bordeaux where she studied under professor Charazac, did her no harm, but her strength lies somewhere else. This force pushes her towards abstraction, which brings her immediate artistic success (First Prize for the young French painter, Prize from the European Academy of Art).

Christine Etchevers’ work is infused with such a great élan that her paintings stand out when one understands its abstract language filled with symbolism and the imaginary world of signs. Does she not admit to being fascinated by hieroglyphics? Christine Etchevers’ intimate works associate an explosion of colours, with perfect construction, a communicative happiness, and a creative volubility thereby conveying a strong testimony to life. Her journey marked by exuberance and imagination, has led her to work on the image of the Basque stele which she has executed in different paintings and sculptures such as those undertaken to great acclaim for an exhibit at the Basque Museum in Bayonne.

Christine Etchevers draws from her life’s rich experiences to create paintings that are at the same time abstract yet narrative, dazzling and lyrical, radically involved in the present and strongly anchored in Basque identity.