Painting is the only time Angelique will stay in one spot for any period of time. Her restless spirit will take her from her little apartment in Paris to long walks along the Seine, to India for spiritual energy, and then on to Thailand for the gentleness of its people and a swim with the dolphins. She will return to Paris with the hirondelles, her canvas lit with images of Asia. She will begin again.

Angelique began her travels in South Australia where she was born into a strong artistic family. Her grandmother was a classical ballerina, her aunts and uncles - artists, writers, sculpters and her mother a renowned fashion designer. Angelique was handpainting silks and creating her own unique clothes while other girls were chatting about boys and shopping.

Mature beyond her years, Angelique became an integral part of her mother's business even as a teenager. As a young adult, her creative spirit and boundless energy found a natural affinity with raw beauty of India. There she collected silk fabrics and designed pieces for her mother's collection. Her travels took her to Thailand where one day she saw a door. The door bewitched her. It was an old wooden door, rich in charm and character that first inspired Angelique to paint. "People see an abandoned car or an old building and they just see something ugly. They miss the poetry of its being. All the people that have touched it have become the very essence of its soul." "Several boats and buildings I have painted are no longer there...Even the beautiful old wood door has been replaced by a metal one..." She recounts with sorrow.

For Angelique, the door was figuratively and literally an opening of a new avenue of expression. It's physical destruction, and the dissappearance of other such symbols of architecture solidified Angelique's decision to pursue painting over fashion. "what really forced me to work was the destruction of india's beautiful colonial maisons..." The desire to capture their souls on canvas became a desire that transcended all other creative endeavors. It is this sensitivity to her subject matter be it humble or grand that gives Angelique's work an emotion beyond pure paint.

Her images vibrate with energy. They dance visually before ones eyes. It has been written that her works "seem to be saturated with pure visual happiness." The door, the boat, the building - would their spirits rise again from the colors of Angelique's canvas? If they could speak they might say, "You have succeeded little hirondelle. I live through your canvas. I breathe."

"Peindre est une forme de l'élan vital." Cette pensée de Jacques Villon est peut-être la meilleure introduction à l'art de Angélique. Sa naissance dans le Sud australien, à Adélaide, la plonge d'emblée dans un milieu riche de multiples influences. Décisive, celle de sa mère qui excellait dans la haute couture. Dès la fin de ses études, Angélique témoigne d'un remarquable don pour la peinture sur soie, préparant elle-même les tissus; et son talent s'élargit à de vastes compositions murales. Si Angélique a délaissé la soie, ce fut pour raffiner et enrichir son expression dans une synthèse très personnelle de l'incomparable énergie et intensité de la vie parisienne et des somptueuses couleurs de l'Asie. Ses impressions de l'Inde se traduisent par une bouleversante poésie du délabrement et du dénuement. Les images qui résultent de tant d'influences diverses ne répudient jamais la joie visuelle : elles sont comme une promesse d'harmonie. Si l'on connaît Angélique, on est frappé de voir ce qui paraît d'elle-même dans ses tableaux : une spontanéité qui relève de la pureté et de la noblesse d'âme. Depuis quelque temps, Angélique passe chaque année plusieurs mois à Paris. Elle s'épanouit dans l'ambiance si particulière des cafés de la capitale, de ses vieux immeubles où palpite l'âme des siècles. Paris, pour un artiste, est une source inépuisable d'inspiration et de création. Attentive aux paysages urbains les plus modestes comme aux prestigieux, Angélique vit Paris comme elle a vécu Bali ou Pondichéry, et elle sait en exprimer le charme le plus profond.

par Pierre Dermangeat