Artist Statement
Anne-Lise Merchant's artistic style blends expressive realism and vibrant abstraction, often featuring rich colors, dynamic brush strokes, and a strong sense of movement. Her work reflects both French and American cultural influences, creating pieces that feels both contemporary and timeless. Many of her works include compositions, where figures and landscapes merge with energetic patterns, evoking a sense of life and motion.
Although she studied art in France, her more recent paintings from South Florida are inspired by a blend of structured perspectives along with spontaneous artistic gestures. This fusion has allowed her to create pieces that feel both structured and free flowing, thus capturing the essence of both European precision and American spontaneity. Her critics calls her a contemporary realist artist whose work depicts a powerful reflection of 21st century life - introspective, interconnected, expressive and deeply human where emotion meets brushstroke.
Artist Biography
A contemporary realist French artist, Anne-Lise paints between France and South Florida, blending classical oil techniques with modern themes that explore beauty, nature, identity, and culture.
From an early age, drawing was at the center of Anne-Lise’s interest. Anne-Lise has received extensive training in France at the École des Beaux-Arts and have received numerous awards and recognitions in France and the US. Her paintings are exhibited in art galleries, public spaces and exclusive art fairs.
Anne-Lise is a member of the Oil Painting Association of America (OPA) and the National Oil and Acrylic Painters' Association (NOAPS). She has a Master of Law degree from Université de Picardie Jules Verne in France and practiced business law prior to pursuing her passion of becoming an international artist.
Reflection & Inspiration
“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”
– Twyla Tharp
“The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.”
– Piet Mondrian
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.”
– Pablo Picasso
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
– Edgar Degas
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”
– Georgia O’Keeffe
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”
– Aristotle
“A work of art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t art at all.”
– Paul Cézanne
“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”
– Salvador Dali
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
– Scott Adams
“Every artist was first an amateur.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
– Thomas Merton
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
– Leonardo Da Vinci
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”
– Pablo Picasso
“In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Painting is a means of self-enlightenment.”
– John Olsen
“Art is a line around your thoughts.”
– Gustav Klimt