Corinne Labarussias

“I see drawing as a personal journey, a way of observing and perceiving the world,  the expression of experience through form."

––Corinne Labarussias, Painter

French figurative artist Corinne Labarussias seeks to reveal human desire and form in her delicate watercolor, charcoal, and gold leaf nudes. These totally unique romantic portraits offer a lens of distortion that resists convention. Her characters are erotic and psychological, beautiful and raw. Labarussias conceives of her drawings as a spontaneous dance, with rhythm and movement, captured in a moment, then frozen in time. Her use of recycled materials like old magazines and handmade paper texturize her work in a powerful multi-dimensional way. 

Labarussias studied Italian, English, and literature in school.  After teaching French and Italian for many years, she made a decision to devote her life completely to art, a desire which had been bubbling for a long time. Something clicked within her when she discovered the living model. She realized that the body has always been our first tool–– it is what drives us, physically and creatively, and it is a decisive path to line and form. To this day, Labarussias continues to study and draw inspiration from the nudes of Courbet, Rodin, Klimt, and Degas, each of whom employs line on a varying vibrational level. Many compare the artist’s work to the iconic imagery of Egon Schiele. 

In addition to exhibiting in galleries throughout France, Labarussias leads private drawing workshops and teaches in a local prison in her medieval hometown of La Rochelle.