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Palais Balène
Rue Balène, 46100 Figeac, 46100

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FRENCH PREMIERE

From November 21 to 30, 2025, French painter Laurence Saunois will unveil her new project entitled Nympheus Luminansis, les nymphéas de la lumière (Nympheus Luminansis, Water Lilies of Light) in Figeac. The result of eight years of work, this cycle pays tribute to Claude Monet and the poetic world of his garden in Giverny, while offering a contemporary and personal interpretation.

Previewed in Figeac, in the Lot department, a city of Art and History, in partnership with the Champollion Museum – Les Écritures du Monde and the municipality, the exhibition will then embark on a two-year museum tour in the United States. From Connecticut to Texas, six institutions will host this Franco-American project.

The exhibition brings together ten large-format canvases in which light and color become the true protagonists. In her approach, Laurence Saunois develops a pictorial language that she defines as a form of “real impressionism”: an alliance between figurative rigor and impressionist sensitivity. Each canvas thus becomes a contemplative immersion.

The founding painting, La danse de la lumière (The Dance of Light), took more than 1,000 hours of work over four years to complete. Inspired by a visit to Monet's gardens, the artist confides:

"My intention was to capture the vibration of light on the colors of nature and offer the viewer an immersive experience, as if they were opening a window onto the Giverny pond for each painting. "

Through reflections and transparencies, some works also reveal a secret dimension. Thanks to the phenomenon of pareidolia, everyone can guess familiar shapes or imaginary figures, transforming the painting into a true emotional mirror.

An internationally renowned artist, Laurence Saunois is known for her figurative and hyperrealistic works inspired by nature. Her paintings, exhibited and awarded prizes in France and the United States, question our relationship with light, time, and artistic memory.