From Monday 27 March 2023, the Domaine de Rocheville is launching its new artistic season in collaboration with the art gallery and guest house Le Cactus Bleu. The first exhibition brings together Joëlle Dubois and Marianne Goffard, two talented painters, one French, the other Belgian.

A painting exhibition with a twist

Do you know how to notice the arrival of spring at Domaine de Rocheville? In the vineyards, the grass is dotted with daisies and muscaris, and inside, the white walls of the large tasting room are back in colour! 

For the second year, Rocheville is collaborating with the guest house and art gallery Le Cactus Bleu, in Reugny (Indre et Loire), and is in turn exhibiting works by contemporary artists that have already been presented to the public at Le Cactus Bleu. Art thus crosses the border… between the departments Maine et Loire and Indre et Loire, but not only!

The 2023 art season starts happily with Marianne Goffard’s round and glittering paintings and Joëlle Dubois’ colourful and nature-inspired canvases. The double exhibition “Paradisiac Islands / Secret Language” has as its guiding line the blue of travel and imagination.

Secret language, writing of the living

Joëlle Dubois’ secret language is that of trees and plants, which communicate not only with each other but also with us, the humans. Even if we don’t always know how to decode it, we can pick up the message of nature by connecting to our emotions and feelings.

It is this writing of the living, mysterious and invisible, that the artist seeks to express in her paintings by an imaginary writing in arabesques.

Who is Joëlle Dubois ?

Joëlle Dubois is a French visual artist born in Paris on 16 August 1960.

She holds a degree in plastic arts (Licence d’Arts Plastiques, La Sorbonne University, Paris) obtained in 2004 and lives and works in the Loire Valley, in Vendôme (Loir et Cher).

Joëlle devotes part of her time to painting, while the other part is dedicated to teaching plastic arts to different audiences in the art school Graines d’Artistes, which she founded in Vendôme in 2006. 

Her works are regularly exhibited in Vendôme, as well as in Paris (Art Capital at the Grand Palais) and mainly deal with the themes of plants, portraits and the cosmos.

 “What I am looking for is to fix imprints of the visible or immaterial sensitive world, interior landscapes, emotions, states of mind. In this way, the imprint of our authentic being is revealed”.

Joëlle Dubois

The garden, a source of inspiration since her childhood

From her father, a gardener, Joëlle Dubois inherited the taste for observing nature and the wonder of the beauty of the plant world.

Over several years, she has created a series of works entitled “Dialogue with my garden” which showcase the species of her garden throughout the seasons: fig trees, peonies, irises, Paulownia, crocosnia…

Joëlle Dubois’ influences

Inspired by two major painters of the 20th century, Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse, Joëlle Dubois shares with the latter the vision of art as an exercise in balance and tranquillity, “a cerebral calming, something analogous to a good armchair that relieves [man] of his physical fatigue.

Joëlle Dubois’ technique

Joëlle’s artistic practice is not limited to one medium. She uses different techniques to represent leaves, branches or twigs, sometimes freehand with acrylic paint or ink, using tree leaves or with the monotype method. The latter consists of pressing certain areas of celluloid to create variations in intensity and colour.

Her colourful compositions range from figurative to abstract, with the painter using acrylic as a juice to create random mixtures, in a search for harmony and a contemplative spirit.

Her series, very diversified in style and techniques (collage of bark, sand, oil, acrylic, monotype, writings…) are called “Trips”, “Portraits, mirrors of the soul”, “Small frames”, “In the garden of Eden”, “Imaginary landscapes”, “Dialogue with my garden”, “Abstract works”…

The 11 paintings of her series “Secret language, writing of the living”, currently exhibited at Domaine de Rocheville, transcribe the imaginary language of nature and the emotions felt in contact with it.

Paradise Islands by Marianne Goffard

Marianne Goffard’s paintings transport the viewer to paradisiacal islands thanks to their intense blue and tondo format that recalls the roundness of the earth and the vast expanse of the oceans.

Who is Marianne Goffard ?

A latecomer to the art world

Marianne Goffard is a Belgian painter from Waterloo, south of Brussels.

Born in Brussels in 1971, Marianne has always lived in an artistic world. After obtaining her Master’s degree in Art History at the ULB and working for several Brussels museums and galleries in the Sablon, as well as for an insurance company specialising in works of art, she devoted herself for more than 10 years to raising her four children. 

It was at the age of 43 that Marianne Goffard decided to start painting.

A vibrant style, playing on colour and matter

Self-taught, she joined an artists’ workshop in Genappe, in the Walloon region, and began to paint with passion. 

From the beginning of her artistic career, she explored different styles and techniques, playing with matter and colour to express her emotions in an abstract way. Inspired by contemporary masters such as Gustav Klimt, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter, she creates a personal universe where shimmering colours and textures intermingle.

Little by little, opportunities arise and she exhibits in Belgium and in Europe, making beautiful artistic encounters that inspire and encourage her.

Beyond her artistic talents, Marianne is a sparkling and joyful person, who sees life in colour and positively.

The “Art is big” gallery

In 2020, Marianne realised her dream by opening her own participatory art gallery in Waterloo, “Art is big”, a meeting place for committed art lovers. Together with six other artists, she exhibits her work and supports a different charity each month by donating 5% of sales. Every month, a writer comes to the gallery to sign his book.

Marianne Goffard’s technique

The artist spreads acrylic paint and/or inks on the canvas, then adds glitter or gold leaf. Finally, she applies a resin that will give the shiny effect.

The “So” series

If there were only one word to sum up Marianne’s paintings, it would be the adjective ’round’: round as an eye, round as the moon… She has chosen the tondo form for most of her paintings.

Her series of paintings have titles that reflect her enthusiasm and joie de vivre: “So Color”, “So Gold”, “So Me”, “So Moon” and “So Round”… In the “So Moon” series, the moons are painted in gold or silver, while in “So Round”, the moon leaves the frame to become a work of art in its own right. In this series, the artist plays with inks, gold powder, acrylics and resin to create canvases that are both shiny and transparent.

7 paintings by Marianne Goffard can currently be seen in the Rocheville exhibition room.

Practical information about the painting exhibition

Domaine de Rocheville is a modern winery, located in the heart of the Saumur Champigny vineyards and 8 km from Saumur, which produces a selection of elegant and sustainable Loire wines in AOC Saumur Champigny, Saumur Blanc, Saumur Rosé and Crémant de Loire. 

This estate, which has the Organic Agriculture label, has been deeply committed to an eco-responsible approach and the preservation of biodiversity since its creation.

With its contemporary winery built on troglodytic cellars, this atypical place offers a variety of wine tourism services to suit all tastes: wine tasting and sales at the property, visits to the vineyards and winery, several art exhibitions per year, summer evenings, and much more…

The exhibition and sale can be viewed free of charge during the estate’s opening hours, Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 6pm.

Exhibition dates: 27 March to 9 May 2023

Opening: Thursday 30 March from 6pm to 8pm

For any information, contact us!