Oil Painting by Cécile Ganne, “In the Wind”, oil on canvas.

This gold and blue landscape oil painting by Cécile Ganne draws its inspiration from Southern France. Its Umbrella pines sway in the wind on limestone hills, white with blinding light of high noon. The palette knife helps to express this contrasted sunbathed landscape. The palette of colors is limited to whites, blues and yellows, and blacks to render the starkness of this French countryside landscape.

A French contemporary landscape artist based in Boston, Massachusetts, Cécile Ganne grew up painting with my maternal grandmother in the Dordogne Valley of Southern France. Her ephemeral landscapes straddle the line of genre, incorporating and blending various influences, including poetic realism, expressionism, and abstraction. They usher the viewer into the intensity and imminence of the present moment: the “eternal present”, a dimension that encompasses both the moment of artistic creation while honoring the fleetingness of nature and life. She often paints during the dreamlike, “in-between” moments of the day: moments of waiting. Heavily inspired by Southern France and cubism, these vistas are enigmas to be solved and games to delight the mind: an invitation to join her in this quest for serenity that can exist alongside sensuous intensity.

Her work resides in private collections in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. An active member of the SoWa Artist Guild, she holds a Ph.D in French literature and several MAs in French and English literatures and culture with a minor in Art History from Boston University, La Sorbonne, and Université Toulouse le Mirail. Currently, she is a Lecturer at Wellesley College.