The Artist: Henrie Richer
I was with friends from the UK last week, people I don’t often get to see. Predictably, conversation always leans towards questions about why I decided to move to Paris, what I especially love about Paris, and do I plan to stay here forever. The answer to the second question changes all the time.
One thing I especially love about Paris is the transportation system. As in NYC, it isn’t necessary to own a car. Not only is the transportation system efficient, liberal, and easy to navigate but most of the time, it’s faster than driving!
At various periods over time, Paris has been the centre of the Literary World. The sense of creativity that pulses in the air here in Paris is another thing I especially love. In the 1920s Fitzgerald, Hemingway, E.E, Cummings, Hart Crane, and others made the Café Deux Magots famous and they drank their way around France. In the 1950s, James Baldwin, Chester Himes, Richard Wright made the Montparnasse area famous as their hangout. I discovered on moving here that there were writing classes and workshops everywhere, all the time. It was wonderful. And I didn’t have to drive a car and look for parking that doesn’t exist in order to attend a writing workshop. Heaven!
Periodically, I like to highlight an up and coming artist or writer. This week, I’ve chosen my friend, Henrie Richer. Like me, she has gone back to school, in her case Ecole de Beaux Arts of Versailles, in the second half of her life. She has raised a family. They’ve flown the coop and she can now make her artistic dreams come true. I am lucky enough to own several of her photographs which I look at every day. And every day, I’m reminded of Henrie’s eye. She really can see. With photographs, she can frame a subject so that it is more interesting than the subject itself. Now she has turned her attention to painting and other mediums. As with her photographs, I’m stunned by the way she sees, by the way her heart and her eye work together to produce something that speaks to us. Henrie hasn’t been long in the difficult world of making a living in Art. Yet, her nature seems to overflow with creative ideas, bold statements, and results that make the viewer think about the world that the photograph or painting is telling us about. I am excited to introduce her to you.
The following is an interview with Henrie that we did last week.
SS: I know that you are from the United Kingdom. How did you come to be living in France, specifically Paris?
HR: I first visited Paris when I was eight years old. For some unknown reason, I decided, there and then, that one day I would live in this beautiful city. The summer before I went to university to study French and Italian, I got a holiday job as a receptionist in the South of France at a fancy camping site. While working there, I met my future husband, who was also working a summer job as a student engineer. Our friends and family thought that the summer romance would not last, but we are still together forty years later. During our studies we travelled back and forth across Europe to see each other during the holidays. Then on the day of my graduation from university, I left England forever and came to live with my Chéri in Paris.
SS: That’s such a romantic story and very French! Have you always inclined towards fine art or has living near Paris influenced the artist in you?
HR: My mother is an artist. I grew up seeing her study for her degree in her forties and then working on her art. I secretly dreamed of being an artist, but failed the entrance exam to art school and went on to study languages instead. Living near Paris is certainly inspiring as opportunities to fill the well of inspiration are plentiful, as much in the streets as in the galleries and museums.
SS: How has your chosen medium changed over the years. I know that you did photography for many years.
HR: As a teenager I convinced myself that I was not an artist and did not touch any form of art making for about thirty years. Our eldest daughter has multiple disabilities and I had little time or energy for anything other than daily life, although I wrote both fiction and non-fiction during this time. When she left home, I started taking life drawing, painting and photography lessons. I created a small photography business, but then Covid happened.
SS: I didn’t realise your business was that young. Your photographs are so beautiful and well thought out. I thought you’d had a business for years. Yet, you applied for and were accepted into the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Versailles. Since you are in your late-50s, what made you decide to go back to Art School?
HR: During the lockdowns I was unable to pursue photography as a business and I soon became bored with photographing things at home. However my painting lessons continued during the pandemic via Zoom. I decided that my teenage dream to attend art school was still possible.
SS: Has your first year at the Beaux Arts given you what you hoped for?
HR: In September ‘22, I was accepted into the second year of a three-year diploma course. During the year there was more theory than I had expected, but I learned and practised new techniques, such as engraving and some basic sculpture. We were soon told that academic technique is not important in contemporary art and that the only job we have is to evoke and provoke an emotional response in the viewer. We were told that if we wanted to improve our drawing or painting technique, we could watch You Tube. This attitude did come as a bit of a shock, however twelve months on, I no longer feel it is unfounded. The year was very rich both in content and the mix of students at the school, who are from eight different countries and whose ages range from 20 to 60 yrs. Versailles is a small school and our group of students is supportive and caring.
SS: You have an on-line store and write a blog. Have you been able to keep those up while in school?
HR: Over the last year, I completely abandoned my blog and website. Having thirty hours of lessons a week, a personal project to develop, and homework, I just didn't have the time. My wonderful web designer Samantha at Aspen Creative Studios redesigned my site for me over the summer to reflect a more pared down and professional portfolio site. I don’t have an online shop at the moment, but I’m happy to answer inquiries from prospective buyers. This year will also be very busy, but I hope to write an article for my blog once a month.
SS: I own three of your photographs: one of poppies and two of Versailles. I think your photography changed in the last half decade. Can you tell us what you were after?
HR: As a photographer I am largely self-taught. In the 80s and 90s I used to freelance articles and take photographs for these articles with my traditional film camera, but the arrival of digital photography rather threw me for a loop. I needed guidance to get a handle on all the bells and whistles that digital cameras now have, so I attended workshops with the American photographer Meredith Mullins, in Paris. I had a long apprenticeship learning to use my camera and honing my eye and skills. Predictably I started with learning to take photographs like the photographers that I admire, such as Saul Leiter, Sara Moon and Annie Leibovitz amongst many others. Then I started to branch out into more artistic approaches and I'm fascinated by the abstract possibilities of photography.
SS: In Art School, you’ve been experimenting with different mediums, stretching your artistic approach there also. Has one of them spoken to you more than others?
HR: It has been a great experience to discover new mediums such as engraving, but my first art loves are still the same: photography and painting. I hope to create work in the future that combines both mediums.
SS: What is your vision of your future in the Art World?
Are female artists treated differently than male artists?
HR: I can't say that I have a vision for my future, I certainly have hopes and dreams. In the short term I hope to succeed in getting my diploma next June. We will have three assessments this year in December, March and June, which consist in creating a mini exhibition and exhibition pamphlet for the jury of teachers and artists. My dream, like most creatives, is to exhibit and earn a living from my art and to gain the respect of my peers.
Women have certainly been excluded from art history until very recently. Now there are women-only exhibitions and competitions which help artists to break into the market. More than the difficulty of being a woman in a man's world and a man's art market, is the fact that I will be sixty when I finish art school. Ageism is even more pronounced than sexism in most spheres. However, there are cases of artists who did not start making art or making a living from their art, until after retirement, so you never know. I certainly believe that there is room for more than one life in a life.
SS: Thanks so much, Henrie. Even though you don’t have an on-line store, people can go to your website: www.henriericher.com. If interested in buying any of your work, they can contact you via the website. I encourage everyone to go to her website and just look around. I think that, like me, you will be awed.
One last thing: Of all the work you have done in the past year, do you have a favorite that you’d be willing to show my readers?
HR: Yes! My favourite painting is #Femicide - The Red Shoe I (sold), the first of a series that I am working on:
EDUCATION.
2022 - 2024
Student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Versailles, France.
2017
Registered business owner as Auteur/Artiste Photography.
2010 – 2014
Photography workshops in Paris with American photographer, Meredith Mullins.
1986
B.A.Hons French/Italian/Art History - The University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
EXHIBITIONS.
2021 - 2022
Barcelona Foto Biennale, 6th Biennal of Fine Art & Documentary Photography with a series of photographs of the Chateau de Versailles.
AWARDS.
2020
First prize in the Architecture category of the 15th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for Woman Photographers.
2020
Honourable Mention in Self Portrait du 15th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards for Woman Photographers.
2018
Received an Honourable Mention in the Los Angeles based, International Photography Awards.
Two photo series Walls and Windows and Horizons featured in Dodho Magazine.
A bientôt,
Sara