Ines Longevial is a 28-year-old painter based in Paris. She grew up in the Southwest of France in a “little house on the prairie” and went to boarding school at the age of 16 to study applied arts. Since her mother was also a painter as well, Longevial grew up around artwork and attending museum exhibitions. She started drawing at a very young age and started playing around with paints at the age of 7.
I love her paintings because of the simple forms and geometric shapes as well as the bright colors they contain. Though her paintings have some influence of design, most likely because of her illustrating and graphic design background, there is still a painterly quality to her pieces. The visible brush stroke and subtle shifts in hue in areas of color that otherwise seems flat make the paintings interesting and more painterly. Furthermore, Ines cites Pablo Picasso as one of her inspirations—which makes sense because of the similar abstracted style and vibrant colors as well as apparent themes.
Longevial primarily focuses on the themes of women and nature in her paintings. In several interviews she states, “we paint what we know best” and “What I know best is myself”. She goes further to explain that things such as her childhood, family, friends, and her own emotions influence the subject of her paintings. Therefore, a lot of women and flowers appear in her pieces. The way she paints the women with round faces and intense glares in addition to the vibrant colors and geometric shapes give a feeling of “calm joy”, as Longevial describes.
For Ines, painting isn’t just something she enjoys doing, but it’s a medium that allows her to reveal her inner emotions and feelings. She also is known for spending days at a time alone in her Paris apartment, because she “would like to do nothing but paint”. Her attitude towards painting reminded me of Amabile’s Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity. Amabile describes how “Intrinsic motivation arises from the individual’s perceived value of engaging in the task itself (e.g., finding it interesting, enjoyable, satisfying, or positively challenging), while extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources”. As a result of being intrinsically motivated, a creator’s work has the potential to be more interesting and overall creative, as opposed to being extrinsically motivated. Longevial’s work comes from an intrinsically motivated mindset and therefore, in my opinion, comes up with intriguing and beautiful pieces because of her hard work and love for painting.
Longevial’s unique art and work ethic have earned her the opportunity to be featured in museums around the globe and have collaborations with brands like Nike, Urban Outfitters, and Fred Perry. I’m excited to see what’s in the future for her, considering she is only 28 and already creates beautiful work!
Teresa M. Amabile & Juliana Pillemer, “Perspectives on the Social Psychology of Creativity”.
I had never heard of Longevial until your blog post, but I absolutely love the use of bold blocks of colors and the way that she focuses on her own personal emotions in her paintings. I love that expression of "calm joy" and the way she is inspired by Picasso because after you mentioned it in your post, I could very clearly see the connection.
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