DECORATIVE PAINTING

Florence Girette envisions intricate and luminous patterns painted on glass, canvas, and mirrors. With the collaboration of her son, Arthur Sire, she redefines the reflections within an interior, shaping the contours and textures of unique pieces.

Florence Girette has always known herself to be creative and possessed an artistic soul from a very young age. She explored various realms, including dance and tapestry, before finding her calling in decorative painting, which she turned into both her profession and her art. Today, she works in tandem with her son, Arthur, who has been immersed in the workshop and the world of decorative painting since childhood. It’s a story of passion and artistic legacy.

Movement as a Creative Journey

Florence Girette sees herself as a dancer – pointe shoes, modern jazz, dance troupe, performances. She dedicates her entire body and heart to it. After several disappointing auditions, she recalls her friend who studied gilding in Belgium. Memories of the gestures and techniques flood back. She is drawn to the movement of travels. Subsequently, she decides to undergo training at the Van Der Kellen Institute in Brussels, the sole European school teaching traditional techniques of decorative painting and trompe-l’œil since 1882. For twenty years, she creates stage and film decors, exploring and refining her techniques. Wood imitation, marbling, pleats, lights, patinas, materials, objects – she paints everything, joining troupes, participating in film shoots, feeding her desire for movement and creative strength.

In the 2000s, she opts for a different rhythm. She paints for herself, marking a new professional phase. Having accumulated countless motifs, tools, ideas, and samples, she discovers and refines her style. Starting with painting on canvases – large formats – and then, by a stroke of luck, she paints on a glass plate. She continues to explore this surface, experimenting with materials, brushstroke overlays, and textures. Florence decides to showcase her technique to the world of decorators.

In 2012, Jean-Louis Deniot, a decorator and interior architect renowned for his refined and luxurious atmospheres, offers her the opportunity for their first collaboration. This leads to a genuine bond of trust, and they subsequently work together on numerous projects worldwide. Other prestigious collaborations follow, including those with Tino Zervudachi, Louis Vuitton, and private clients.

COLLECTIONS

Discover

Between Academic Precision and Exploratory Discoveries

For a long time, Florence drew inspiration from Klimt. Indeed, her work reflects the golden iridescence, as well as tones that are sometimes nuanced or highly contrasting. Implicitly, there is a presence of “nature and its distorted order” in her work. She applies the glazing technique to glass (as she does with her canvases), bringing a delicacy and solar, magnetic depth to her creations.

Her years of experience with materials and glass plates enable her, even when painting on the reverse side and despite uncertainties in drying between each layer, to master the outcome. However, a fortunate accident may occasionally sneak in between the overlays. She candidly shared with AD magazine, “I must have been dyslexic when I was little: I work completely backward.”

"I was ahead of my time. No one was offering glass decors at that time. The perception of this material was heavy, impractical, and dusty. I discovered it to be airy, poetic, and luminous."

Architecture and Large Formats

For their decorative projects, Florence and Arthur experiment, research, and finalize their samples on more manageable A4 formats. They carry a selection to present in offices or showcase their entire glass catalog at their Parisian studio at 5 rue Richard Lenoir. Subsequently, the technique is translated onto larger formats: screens, walls, ceilings…

In collaboration with Jean-Louis Deniot, Florence reinvents the Nolinski hotel, with her works featured in the Brasserie Réjane, the Grand Salon, and the boudoir of the establishment. Her canvases and textured painted walls adorn penthouses, palaces in Paris, Corsica, London, New York, and Singapore. Working as a team allows for more fluidity and enhanced memory—memory of forms, memory of gestures—to rediscover a motif, a specific appearance, the unique accuracy of an irregularity beneath the glass plate.

Monumental Pieces or Furniture, Between Robustness and Lightness

Her canvases, painted walls, or decorations made of iridescent and colored glass serve as a bridge between paradoxes. A paradox between the opacity of paint and the shine, the brightness of glass. Between the surface, inherently smooth, and the depth of the roughness left by different layers of material. Between the density of the glass as a medium and the lightness of the finished decor. Between the interpretation of forms: either microscopic or infinite galaxies. There is also a paradox between the inertia of glass and the vitality of nature that inspires the motifs: water droplets, breath, waves, or bark.

“Smart Mirrors”

More recently, Florence has explored mirrors as a creative medium under the entity Maud Shadow. Using a similar technique of painting on the reverse side, this time combined with silvering, but for a much more free expression and a more intimate narrative. It is no longer about motifs for decoration. With her mirrors, Florence reveals herself as an artist by envisioning unique pieces that showcase her technique and creativity. These “smart mirrors” physically take us on a journey into a setting, a story, into a new imagination. They transport us to the other side of the mirror. Beyond the reflection they offer us, they also explore the psyche, our personal interpretations of who we are.

In Paris, Florence Girette et Arthur Sire exhibit their work at their studio – 5 rue Richard Lenoir, in the 11th arrondissement. Additionally, their creations adorn the Grand Salon and boudoir of the Nolinski Hotel, as well as the Brasserie Réjane. This immersive experience takes visitors on a journey through the gentle ambiance of subdued grey-blue tones and the luminosity of golden accents.