Peggy Nichols
- Jan 1, 2021
- 2 min read

Annie Clavel: an artist who explores the duality between scientific perception and creativity

Annie Clavel grew up in Paris, France, where she studied mathematics and computer science. She gained a Master's degree in both subjects and taught them at schools through out France and Tunisia.

Clavel moved from France to Long Beach, California, in 2006. Once in the US, she created Les Jolis Trésors Art Gallery in Long Beach, California and managed the gallery from 2009 to 2014, curating exhibitions, moderating 'Art Talks' and teaching art.

Ms. Clavel has had several solo exhibitions with C Gallery on Broadway, in Long Beach. She has also had solo exhibitions at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, in Santa Ana, California.

She has recently organized an Artists Exchange between Paris, France and Los Angeles, California with LA Artcore.

Clavel has had numerous galleries and university group exhibitions of her artworks in Paris, France and in Southern California. Galleries include: LA ArtCore, South Bay Contemporary, Gallery 825, BG Gallery, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Palos Verdes Art Center and Torrance Art Museum. Clavel has also shown her work at Studio C Gallery, in a group exhibition with the long established painting group, Women Painters West.

Elements of modernism, abstract expressionism, and contemporary abstraction influence her paintings. She looks to the work of Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Frantisek Kupka, Matisse, Franz Marc, Gerhard Richter and Zhou Wou Ki.

'Effervescence' mixed media, 24 x 24 inches

'LaVie Est Ailleurs', mxid media ( diptych ) 18 x 36 inches

" In my paintings, I explore the duality between my scientific perception and my creative life. I imagine mathematical theories in color, shapes, light and movement. Theories are worlds where I like to wander, inventing moments, emotions and stories. My colorful surfaces depict universes driven by quantum mechanics or mathematical concepts. These colorful surfaces also depict my current feelings which depend on my observations, on my readings and what life brings to me. Looking out from my window, I can see many worlds existing together on Earth and interconnected. Looking at the stars, I can envision galaxies and universes.

Lately, my vision of cosmology has had a deep influence on my art. I have in mind the huge amount of growth and evolution that our Universe underwent from the Big Bang to the present day. Early universe, dark matter, exoplanets, black holes, clusters of galaxies out into space and back in time, are a source of inspiration.

My mixed media paintings combine a variety of nuanced colors , a multitude of diverse brush strokes and alternating textures. I build up layers, then subtract, add, partially cover, scratch and scrape the surface, to create the effects I seek.

For my watercolor paintings on Yupo, I use moist watercolors in tube. I apply them directly on the surface, and then I add a large amount of water with a large brush. In this first layer, the vivid colors mingle randomly together. Later on, I add new layers with big splashes of watercolor and thin connecting lines.

These painting techniques bring me closer to the way I imagine the cosmos and the infinity in mathematics."

Annie Clavel

1/05/2020