ABOUT THE ARTIST

ARTIST OF THE SENSITIVE

She didn’t know that she has feelings so she experienced them through horses

France based and internationally spreaded, Benedicte Gelé paint the horses, expressiveness and emotions. Born in 1975 in the Parisian suburb, however she’s never had connection with this animal until she started to ride them at the age of 15. In parallel, school was at best the place where she can draw horses on the sidelines of his notebooks, with her head more in the clouds than focused on the teachers' words. Obviously her parents agreed with an art cursus which ended the anxiety they felt at the end of each school years. Gelé was this kind of children who felt out of her place in this classic way of learning. She became graphic designer without stopping her research in the artistic way. Her curiosity and her desire to improve her skill, pushed her into learning by herself the different techniques like oil or watercolor. She started to paint landscapes with first success in regional exhibitions with some first prizes. In 2004, her job as art director ended brutally as she was pregnant. This unemployment time was undeniably a sign for her to start something else. Gelé became graphic designer and artist freelancer. On the horse side, she never failed to take time during the weekends with her mare she’s bought with the help of her parents and summer jobs when she was 18 yo. This first mare played a major role in her life without knowing it at the time. Benedicte Gelé learned a lot with her, humanely speaking as well as an equine level. She loved watch her evolved in her animal life, learned her expressions, attitudes and behaviors. Aware of the animal welfare, she looked for ways to always communicate and interact better with them. No wonder that she developed a keen sense of expressing their emotions. After landscapes, she has naturally came to paint horses with a little help of her husband who was at the base of this choice. Year after year, she became more artist than graphic designer letting a big part of her art express the natural emotional states of this animal and by extension, her own.