A look into French buildings

Plenty of French soul is filling the walls of Square Edge Community Arts Centre with depictions of buildings that have stood the test of time.

Hosted by Alliance Francaise, The Soul of French Buildings is a collection of drawings by Palmerston North-based artist Emilie Geant.

The ink and watercolour drawings in the Palmerston North arts centre are intricate depictions of some of the buildings that the French-born artist loves from her homeland. They are various buildings she has photographed.

Geant said some had stood for centuries, ‘‘silently witnessing the world around them’’.

‘‘The oldness almost gives the buildings wrinkles and tears and it gives them a life. They have witnessed so much. They were there before we were born or even our grandparents. They have seen things that we can’t imagine.’’

Geant first came to New Zealand to spend a year but after she ‘‘fell in love with New Zealand, its people and the Kiwi culture’’, she moved here to live. She works as a fulltime artist.

Geant’s medium for the exhibition is ink that she applies with a dip pen and she then adds in some watercolour to the facades,

‘‘to breathe life into the stones’’. It is time-consuming work that ‘‘is kind of therapeutic – at some point you just forget what you are doing and you are just in it’’.

Geant’s illustrations have been used for a Matariki calendar, graphic design, corporate work and three children’s books. One of her books, published in France, tells the story of some of New Zealand’s legends and traditions.

The Soul of French Buildings is open at Square Edge Community Arts until July 31.