Virginie ASCENCAU

Short Biography

Virginie Dupont was born into a large, simple-living family of artists in Portugal fifty years ago. At the age of 15, she emigrated to France, where she married a poet and painter who introduced her to oil painting. Shortly afterwards, she contracted the insidious disease Multiple Sclerosis, which deprived her, at first progressively and then completely, of the use of her arms and legs. In 1998, fate struck again. This time it involved her husband, who now suffers from paraplegia following a surgical error. “To dream means to live a little bit more,” as Michel expresses it. So, they each try to inspire each other with a little strength as best they can. Virginie gave her life new meaning when she learned to paint anew, this time with her mouth. She had to relearn all the precise movements which lend her pictures such delicacy and freshness. Virginie, who always meets the world around her with a smile on her lips, devotes herself to painting in oils, acrylics and watercolours. “For me, painting means going for a walk in my dreams - there, where the brush glides over a golden-brown landscape. I like to draw the wandering gaze of others like an accomplice. I wait for colours which I can spread out in harmony, and which match the twilight in my flat a little, where my loneliness burdens my soul.” Virginie knows how to surround herself with skilled teachers, who teach her to put light into a sky where bizarre, curly-shaped clouds float about. Virginie creates out of the little strength which remains to her, designing bouquets in which the flowers are brought to life in iridescent colours which are a delight to the eyes. Unfortunately, the illness continues to progress and is meanwhile causing pain in her eyes, making painting difficult and at times even impossible. In addition, her state of health has forced her to move. Yet, despite all these difficulties, Virginie still clings to life. She longs to find that spark in the brush-tip that makes the light and contrast flash out of her latest picture.