EAST Interview: Emilie Houssart's Abstract Light

Tell us a little bit about your training.

I was lucky and fell by accident into a traditional atelier-style training in Florence (the Charles Cecil Studios). It was a hardcore practical training, drawing and painting from life for six hours per day, and learning some of the techniques and philosophies of the Old Masters which have been passed down from teacher to pupil for generations and have nearly died out. It has given me the language with which I can now say anything I like. It's so important for artists to find the right education, though of course it's hard to know what you're looking for until you've found it.

You are very young, as are many of the artists featured in E.A.S.T. When did you first start to hone your skill?

I was 20 and in the middle of a language degree when I came across the art school, and started training there after I graduated at 22.

Most of your work is in a classic realist style. What draws you to this particular school of art?

Art is a language that can express things between and beyond the words we have at our disposal. I love the work of Old Masters like Rembrandt who use abstract design, light and the human form in powerful combination to communicate with the viewer. And beauty has great power over humans. But the word "realism" has connotations for me of work aimed at reproducing the way things look, and I don't identify with this. The faces and landscapes in my work are metaphors for more abstract things.

Why did you first come to Austin?

I caved in after three years of a long-distance relationship with a UT grad student. I'm glad I did!

How did you get involved with the Pump Project?

They had an available, affordable studio with North light just when I needed one. Artists are solitary creatures, and the Pump Project provides a good community of co-existing solitary creatures to support and stimulate work, or to drink beer together when necessary.

What materials can you not live without, artistically speaking?

Really good paint, really good light and really good brushes. And Canada balsam. And at the moment a set of really good chisels for a wood carving I'm working on.

What places/people/things in Austin inspire you most?

People everywhere are an inspiration. I love the Hill Country where it is rugged and untouched. There's an old railway line I drive past every day that I love and will paint one day. I feel quite free here and that is enormously important.

All of your paintings and drawings are pretty breathtaking. How do you choose your subjects? Do you have a favorite?

Some of them are students I've hired to practice on, but they all have something which has arrested me. I know when I see it. It's the same for landscapes - sometimes I can drive around for days and not find it. There are parts of paintings which have captured a bit of what I was chasing and that always seems like magic, but they all have their own subject and so my favourites change with my moods.

What do you do when you are not creating?

Mostly think about ideas for paintings. There is always music in my head. I like to wander about absorbing things. If I'm not in contact with the world around me I feel like I don't exist.

If you could visit only one other studio during E.A.S.T. which would it be and why?

Probably Arthur Simone's. His is the image I always stop on in the catalogue. There's a lot of interesting work around this year though, so it's a tough call.

Thanks for chatting with us, Emilie! We can't wait to see that wood carving when you are finished.