INTERVIEW: An Interview with My Favorite Live French Artist, Raphael Seygnovert

An Interview with My Favorite Live French Artist, 

Raphael Seygnovert 

Raphael Seygnovert

French Artist

Dear Gentle Readers,

What a treat I have for you today! The wonderful French painter Raphael Seygnovert 

has taken time away from his easel to be with us this morning and I am thrilled to bits.

Good morning, Raphael and welcome to Vision and Verse, the place for Art and Authors. 

It is my pleasure to have you here with us. Tell us a little about your work.

When I realize a work, I try more to express a feeling than to follow strictly speaking a

figurative approach with as a theme the landscape. I use an archaic graphic language 

impregnated with all my experience, all my musical and pictorial artistic influences. It is as

if I were trying to express a distant memory that would not have root in our present life. 

As a vision the eyelids closed.

What is your favorite medium?

I love all the pictorial techniques. It is a real pleasure 

to apply and work the pastel with the fingers, I also 

like acrylic but I use it recently; I have a preference 

for oil, it is a very complete technique.

So what does our favorite Frenchman like to eat?

I appreciate French cuisine but as I am a vegetarian it 

is a bit more complicated cuisine. Vegetables, cheeses.

 And I love cooking too.

Coffee or tea?

I drink tea and coffee, but more coffee; In the north 

of France we drink a lot of coffee.

Pizza or ice cream?

The both!  Pizza "Sicilian" and Lemon ice cream.

Where would you like to visit? 
What piques your interest?

I love everything about ancient cultures, ancient civilizations, mysteries ...

Favorite kind of music?

I love acoustic guitar, folk music, mystical music, relaxation music, traditional music and Celtic music. I listen to many different things, I would hardly say my favorite artist.

What makes Raphael Seygnovert laugh?

I laugh easily, I like to laugh with my friends. The imitators make me laugh, the hidden 

cameras too.

This is my very favorite of all your works. I have this print hanging in my bedroom. You call

them bluebells, but in my part of the world, we have tiny pale violet clusters called bluettes,

or Quaker Ladies, that only bloom in the wet, wet spring, only in the woods or parks. They

are my favorite flower. You cannot buy them in a store. You must clomp through the wet 

woods and get all muddy to find them.


How old were you when you began creating art?
I started to paint very young, then being an adult I stopped for a long time to resume after.

But painting, art, is not a craft strictly speaking, it is a way of life. It's not a choice one day 

makes saying "it's an interesting job", or "I can make a lot of money like that!" Or "I will be

famous." This is necessary to us, for we need to create, to express ourselves in this way, 

because it is part of us. I need, as an autotherapeutic way, to paint, it is my medicine ... 

which heals my soul. I think the important thing is to be in agreement with ourselves.

We all like to draw, paint, glue rocks together, snap photos, etc., but we are well aware 

we couldn’t make a living doing it.  When did you know you made the right decision?

I am comforted in my choice by all positive feedback from the people I meet.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Nature is a constant source of inspiration, walking in the middle of the trees has always done

 me good, it is resource, we should try to preserve as many natural spaces as possible. My 

spirituality is also a source of inspiration.

What do you do when you get an artist block?

The artistic blockages I see more like moments of reflection that allow to take a new 

beginning, to have a new eye. We are all the time, internally, dying and reborn to evolve, 

to grow. Like the crysalid and the butterfly.

Favorite artist?
I like many different artists, I like the Impressionists, Monet, Van Gogh, Cross, Corot and 

also Modigliani ...


If you were not an artist, what would you do for a living?

If I was not a painter, I would have liked to be a professional guitarist, a singer, or a social job.

Who has influenced you most in your life?

The person who has influenced me most is hard to say; I have a thought for my father ..

 he was a great person ... courageous and much more, my mother too.. but I do not forget 

the others, all those people who cross your path and illuminate it even for a short time. I 

think we are all like sponges, every interaction, every encounter, changes our life in its 

own way.

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be an artist?I will tell him to paint 

more and more, it is by forging that one becomes a blacksmith.I would tell him to expose 

ever more, meetings and criticisms are always very useful to evolve.To have his own 

opinion about his work and that of others.And getting to know one self, is the best way 

to be authentic.


Links to follow our favorite Frenchman:

twitter: @seygnovert

my site: http://www.raphael-seygnovert.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seygnovert/

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us today. We at Vision and 

Verse wish you continued success in all your endeavors. Come back and see us again!