Lauren, illustrator 🇫🇷

♥ Do you remember your first aesthetic shock?
The huge piles of autumn leaves in the gardens of my Toronto neighbourhood, where I spent the first years of my life. They mixed so many shades of warm colours, you just wanted to dive in! Maybe that’s part of my love for autumnal colours!

♥ The artist you would like to meet? What would you say to her?
Berthe Morisot. I would ask her to tell me about her experience as a woman painter in this so masculine environment.

What is your favourite colour? What does it inspire you?
I don’t really have a favourite colour, what interests me is more how you can arrange several colours together in a vibrant way. I have a hard time limiting myself to one or two colours in my creations, I usually combine at least 5 or 6! But if I really had to choose just one, I think I’d go for a deep duck blue… or a saffron yellow… no really, it’s impossible to choose!

♥ Which museum gives you the greatest emotion? Why?
The Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, for the room with Monet’s Water Lilies. You are caught up in the painting that surrounds you in this oval room. It is rare that non-contemporary works offer such an immersive experience.

♥ Which work of art would you buy without hesitation if you had an unlimited budget?
It’s hard to choose between a Bonnard for its fascinating colours and one of Klimt’s landscapes, which are less well known than his depictions of women, but which personally touch me a lot!

♥ In which city do you feel happiest? Why do you think so? Share your 3 favourite addresses.
At home in Bois-Le-Roi, a town surrounded by nature, nestled between the Seine and the magnificent Fontainebleau forest, which my partner and I chose to grow our family in. Neither he nor I have any history there, so it’s like a blank page (but very green!) to write our own.

My 3 favourite addresses :

• Kids Corner: a very nice children’s shop with a nice selection of second-hand clothes and pieces by local designers.
• La Broc’Bacott’: a tasteful flea market full of vintage treasures.
• Les Affolantes des bords de Seine: holiday homes from the 1900s, each more extravagant than the last.

♥ What book keeps you up all night?
No book keeps me awake all night, but I can tell you what book makes me miss metro stations! The last one that did that to me was Les enfants sont rois by Delphine de Vigan.

♥ What are your biggest sources of inspiration?
My biggest source of inspiration is people. Everyone’s personal world, their little (and bigger) stories…

♥ What’s the funkiest thing you’ve done in your life?
If I tell you, I have a feeling you’ll put it on the internet 😉 !

♥ What is your definition of happiness?
Being with both feet in the present instead of having (far too often as far as I’m concerned…) one foot in the past and the other in the future!