In conversation with Caroline Bouyer

My name is Caroline Bouyer and I’m an artist. I draw and I also specialise in gravure printing. I split my time between my artistic activities and teaching. My course is called «Gravure – images imprimées » and it’s part of the national diploma for « métiers d’art et design » at the Estienne school in Paris.

A passion for gravure

I discovered gravure printing when I was very young, around 15. I trained at the Estienne school in Paris for five years and then I worked for a number of years with a variety of artists and printers. Soft cut copper engraving is an ancient technique that was first used in the West in the15th century. It’s a fascinating process half way between alchemy and chemistry, requiring the artist to master a plethora of different printing techniques with an infinite variety of creative possibilities.

I’m currently mixing the two techniques of drawing and engraving. I start by filling my sketch books with nature drawings. These sketches serve as my inspiration for creating the imaginary worlds that I engrave onto copper plates and which are then printed onto paper.This in turn becomes the backdrop to my next drawings. I’m searching for some form of alchemy that mixes the subtlety of the engraving process, the fluidity of line drawing and also ink washing, all on a variety of different ‘papers’ (I sometimes use Japanese paper or fabrics such as chiffon).

Ménilmontant, the mountain of Paris

I moved toMénilmontant at the beginning of the nineties and opened my studio there in 2007. Even if I no longer live there, it’s an area that I am very attached to. There is a strong sense of cultural diversity and authenticity. Artists settled there some decades back and have fought to maintain their creative spaces and studios, despite the ever encroaching pressures of the Paris real estate market. Each year there is an open day in Belleville and Ménilmontant where you can visit artists’ studios – it’s the best way to get a sense for this unique area with its incredible views across Paris.

From city life to plant life

Handing down

I started to teach engraving in 1998 through the GRETA adult training programme at the Estienne school in Paris, and then in 2001 I started teaching students at the school. I teach and oversee the three-year engraving course which is called« Gravure – images imprimées ».Teaching, the projects we work on as a team, overseeing students’ progress, external partnerships – these are the things that allow me to really evolve in a creative sphere that I am totally passionate about.

I met Béatrice at my studio when she came to pick up a set of 38 prints of my engravings of the outer reaches of Paris. We hit it off straight away. I told her about my dream of designing a wallpaper and immediately Béatrice jumped on the idea.Our collaboration started just like that, it seemed obvious somehow.

In order to transpose my drawings and to adapt them to the wallpaper making process for Le Monde Sauvage, I needed to create a simplified motif that would take into consideration the Indian ‘Batik’ printing technique. I had to do quite a lot of research to understand how to assemble the pattern as a repeat without being the person who would actually make the final product. We did quite a few tests. This wallpaper has been an adventure for us all and in the end, we couldn’t choose between the final two versions so we made them both. So our« Sources » wallpaper is available in two colour ways, « Marais » and « Ménilmontant », both in limited edition runs. Forme these names evoke the streams –Ménilmontant in particular– that had their source right at the top of Paris and which flowed down to join the Seine.

Sources

Very quickly we agreed on the name for the pattern as I wanted to evoke the sensation of a river flowing through the non-printed white spaces on the paper. The word « sources » also evokes the various references that feed my creative process.

☞ Behind the  scenes of the collaboration ♡