A deceptively utilarian-looking old Mill building in Corrandulla is home to French-born artist Isabelle Gaborit. She lives with her husband and three-year-old daughter, Anú, in one of the four-storey apartments in the Mill – and is young enough for her knees not to feel the effects of all those stairs! Mine aren’t.
Isabelle tucked her feet under her as she settled on the sofa to talk about herself and her art: “I was born in 1970 in La Rochelle, which is in the South of France. For me, it’s not really home anymore as I left when I was twenty-three. I was studying English, theatre and Les Beaux Arts (fine arts) in the University and went on an exchange programme to Ireland. Although I was also studying drawing, painting and fine sculpture – which interested me more than the English, it was the English studies which brought me to Ireland. I always knew the art was there although it wasn’t that strong. It was more of a hobby, in the background.
“I was so excited the day I left France, I knew I wasn’t going back. I left at 7 am to catch the ferry, thinking: I’m leaving! Fantastic!” Isabelle illustrates her speech with her body and facial expression so you can imagine the grin on her face, and the waving of her hands and arms, as she told me this story. “Half an hour later my car exploded. Okay, it felt like it exploded. In the middle of nowhere. I just stood in the road with my arms flung wide, thinking: I’m going to Ireland today. Someone’s going to stop for me. I don’t care who. And this man arrived, wearing a suit. He stopped for this crazy woman, talking about Ireland and ferries, and he changed my tyre for me. That was all that was wrong, but it felt very dramatic. I continued on my journey and I knew I would love it here. I knew I would stay even though I hadn’t been to Ireland before. I wasn’t unhappy in France but I felt I wasn’t alive. As soon as I arrived here I felt I was home. I opened up as a person and finished my degree in English, thinking I was going to be a teacher.”
When Isabelle arrived in Galway sixteen years ago, it was a different art scene back then. There were a lot of small theatre companies such as Punch Bag, with theatre art on the streets. She studied Fine Arts on a part time basis and met her husband, Ciarán, a musician and singer/songwriter from Roscommon. “We decided to travel. It just clicked into place and I decided that if I did not do it then, I would never do it. That was in 2000 and we travelled for a year.
“When we got back I studied full time, and then in my final year in college, I became pregnant. It was March and I had my final show in college in May. At the time one of the artists was using a lot of oil paint, which is chemical and not good while you’re pregnant, so I had to move to the big studio in the college. I had a huge space to myself and started painting large canvases. I was using things with no chemicals, such as tea, collages, and inks; pouring paint and watercolours, and using stitching. Everything was very light; there was a peace and joy. I was very happy. I thought about generations, and all the various connections between my daughter, my mother and my grandmother. All those lines connecting. There were a lot of lines in my work, everything was like a web. Before I got pregnant it was all about me – me, me, me, me, me, me!” and dramatic Isabelle thumped where her heart is anchored and laughed heartily.
“After having my child, I started to think a lot about my connections, such as to my parents and my family. Where am I in that grand scheme of things? It’s a big responsibility when you have a child. I have one brother, but then my dad remarried, so I have four other brothers and sisters and they all have families, all living in France. Now my work is all about layers and generations.”
Isabelle took a moment to consider whether her style had changed in the time she took to do her degree. “My style was very different. Before, I used lots of colours, and I guess it was more expressionist. Then, I got into throwing paint, using lots of inks and black. It was very visceral and a lot about what happens in the body – body fluids, guts and so on. It was very dark, actually. Very dark. It was very visual and dark. All of my paintings were metamorphosis, they looked like giant moths.” In true Isabelle style her face took on a dramatically ominous expression and she clawed her fingers, to illustrate the darkness and depth of her work at that stage.
“I use texture paste, then ink, sometimes a lot of acrylic colour, and then collage to create my paintings. I also use tea and coffee for colour. I sand things down and it’s all about putting things on top of each other, exposing some parts, removing some others. It’s layers of paint and the idea is about memory.” Isabelle’s hands flew through the air in motions of painting and sanding as she described her techniques. “I use my hands. I don’t really use brushes … although maybe large brushes sometimes. Usually I put the painting on the floor and I move it around and let it dry at certain angles, making the paint go slow or go fast.
“I love working on wood because you can be very rough with it and it takes the marks really well. You prime it and it’s hard and smooth with no grain. First of all when you glue something like fabric or paper and then you go back to paint, it soaks up everything and can then be sanded down very well when it’s dry. When you drip paint onto it or use pencil, you get a very clean mark. The paintings are not framed. The sheet of wood sits on a wooden frame and I paint the edges. They are about a metre square so they are not too heavy. I used to make them myself and then I got very wise and now I have someone make them for me. He’s very good. The surface is primed with six or seven coats of gesso. I like the texture of so many coats and the last one I shine it smooth. It’s tedious!
“I like it if someone looks at my work and tells me if the painting relates in some way to their life. One woman at my final art show in college insisted on buying one of my paintings. It was huge and it really affected her, reminding her about her childhood.
I have seen it in her house and we have kept in touch. The story of the painting continues…”
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E-mail: isabellegaborit@gmail.com
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