"Elements'"
Watercolour Collection by Julie Vigneron

In 2024, I launched the Elements series to celebrate the power of nature and raise awareness of humanity’s impact on its delicate balance.

This series portrays the four fundamental elements – Water, Earth, Air, and Fire – through larger-than-life female portraits, painted by hand in watercolour on paper. Each woman, representing diverse cultures, serves as a reminder that we are all affected by environmental issues. Our modern lives often give us the illusion that we are at the centre of the world, more important than anything else. Yet, Nature surrounds us, and when we forget it, it inevitably finds a way to remind us of its presence.

Each portrait has its own unique colour atmosphere, reflecting the identity of its element. The strength of Water, Earth, Air, and Fire is deliberately heightened through the use of richly pigmented colours, layered successively to reveal their full intensity. The women, in turn, face different directions, illustrating the diversity of our individual concerns and our tendency to look elsewhere… yet the elements remain omnipresent, ready to impose themselves upon us.

In these paintings, the elements take up only a small portion of the composition, as if humans were the focal point. Yet their power is undeniable. They vibrate through colour and movement, demonstrating that even when invisible to our hurried eyes, they remain the true pillars of our existence. Neither good nor bad, they oscillate between overwhelming force and life-giving energy, a fragile balance between chaos and necessity.

Closing our eyes to nature does not make it disappear. If we ignore it, it will eventually impose its reality upon us.