Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Angélique Landrin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Angélique, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
As a designer, artist, and especially as a french woman, having self-confidence and self-esteem is an ongoing journey.
Art occupies a significant place in French culture, permeating every corner of our history, society and identity. However, despite its worldwide artistic reputation, there are considerable challenges for French artists, especially concerning art education. Art studies are often devalued, seen as less prestigious than traditional academic fields, associated to a financial insecurity and a leading to blurry future. Besides, french education is also based on negative critics, comparison, competition. In such a climate, choosing art as a career has always been discouraged by so many people.
When I traveled to the USA for my student exchange program, I discovered a country where hard work, talent, and success is encouraged, valued, rewarded.
I went to Cleveland Institute of Art and for the first time, I saw people actually believing in their art skills and perspectives of careers, I met teachers that actually believed in mine.
What helped me developing my confidence and self-esteem was trusting those people that actually believed in me, surrounding myself with inspiring and encouraging individuals.
Trusting the compliments and using the critics as a challenge to get better and improve my skills was a huge step in building some kind of professional confidence.
Before that semester in Cleveland I used to focus on negative reviews. Only one of them could have wiped away dozens of previous compliments. But now, I want to give credits to the encouraging people, I want to remember them and a single compliment gives me the strength to get rid of all my insecurities.
So my advice would be : focus on what’s good, be self-compassionate and surround yourself with positive people !
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My name is Angélique, l’m a French 25yo self-taught painter and muralist, who studied product design and graduated in 2021.
I have always been passionate about drawing and fascinated by nature, since I was a kid. But the adventure of painting began in 2020, when the Covid lockdown gave me the opportunity to spend 3 months in the deep French countryside, dividing my time between online classes, bird watching and (kinda illegal at this time) walks outside in the flowers fields…
Slowly I started to build my own art style, inspired of those walks and observations, and influenced by my love for Japanese etchings.
A year ago, I became a muralist thanks to a unexpected opportunity. One of my client trusted my style and asked for a personalized work directly on her walls.
It was completely new to me and I really loved switching to a format like this.
What I like about being a muralist, is that it gives a whole new dimension to my work. Murals have the power to enhance a room : it can highlight a forgotten space, create a real visual experience that sublimate an interior decoration, and it can embody a client’s personality, bringing them more wellness and happiness.
Painting by hand on such large surfaces, sometimes very high and difficult to access, where you have no right to make mistakes, is very challenging but the result is always very powerful!
What’s very important to me in this journey, is letting nature be a source of wonder for everyone. Being able to give my clients a daily breath of fresh air with my paint brushes is for me an incredible accomplishment.
I know murals are not made for everyone, every places and every budgets. That’s why I’m also taking commissions for canvas paintings, so my birds and my vegetation can be accessible to everyone!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
For me the 3 most impactful skills/qualities/areas of knowledge that have helped me significantly are :
1 – finding my style and stay loyal to it : my advice would be to focus on the subject / technique you love the most, because it will build you a strong identity and will differ you from the other artists. It doesn’t mean you can’t improve or change your style, but keep in mind that what you love the most will likely stay important to you and your art.
2 – learning to say « no » :
to some projects that are too far from what you like to do, because if you don’t enjoy a project, you won’t enjoy the result and you really want to avoid a « painful » project.
3 – getting curious about other jobs skills : I personally use a lot of my designer skills that allow me to be more efficient in my mural works. Being curious about softwares, techniques or expertises can be very helpful to get more professional and offer services that differ from competitors.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
As nature/biodiversity are very important to me and my art, my next challenge would be to get even more committed to it.
I’m currently looking for more respectful paints and tools, trying to have a more environmentally-friendly process, and I would love to build collaboration with bird conservation associations to raise awareness about those very fragile animals !
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/angelique_landrin?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/angélique-landrin-140822176
