Nicole Louviers

Could you tell us about your artistic journey — how did Quilling become your primary medium and what inspired you to explore it further?

From a very young age I have always been attracted to drawing, painting at school I had the best grades in visual art. Over the years I have continued to create paintings for my pleasure, to offer to relatives and family. I loved cutting paper, decorating the tree with my garlands and paper stars. I also practiced embroidery. I create by instinct, by desire. I have never studied art.

And it was in 2012 at the age of 41 that I discovered Quilling in the most unexpected way. By wrapping a simple strip of paper around my finger, the idea came to me that it would be possible to create objects from this technique. By doing online research, I learned that the origin of Quilling dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe, where this method was initially used by nuns to adorn sacred objects.

I started my first achievements with scraps of wallpaper and strips cut with a cutter. Since then, I have continued to explore this technique, finding my own style and developing a real passion for Quilling art.

Your work beautifully merges Quilling with acrylic painting. What led you to combine these two techniques, and what does each medium bring to your creative expression?

In Creole, “Lyannaj” is a keyword that evokes link, union and connection. Combining quilling and painting is getting out of my creative comfort zone. It is an exploration of the unknown, a quest for novelty that pushes me to think and create differently. My creative process is unique. I start by making the work in acrylic paint, without any thought for quilling at this stage. Once the paint is dry and placed on the easel, my mind turns to the quilling. With strips of paper, glue and scissors, the art of quilling takes shape on the canvas, until the completion of the work. This is how the “LYANNAJ” paintings were born. The fusion of these two mediums is incredibly satisfying for me.

Many of your pieces convey a strong sense of joy, movement, and healing energy. How does your work as an art therapist influence your artistic practice?

Art occupies an unconditional place in my life, and art therapy is a precious balance that allows me to combine my creative passion with helping and supporting others.

I need colors, movement, softness, but also rigor and precision, with a strong dose of patience. The quilling technique offers all this, and I feel immense happiness to create, happiness that I share with the participants during my sessions, workshops or creative brunches.

These are unique moments, in complete immersion with my creators, where time stops to deliver wonderful and sometimes surprising productions, to my greatest happiness and especially theirs. Creating in art therapy is having the opportunity to surrender silently, it is revealing one’s deep self and having fun above all. These are my precepts.

Nature appears frequently in your compositions — flowers, the sea, birds. What role does nature play in your creative universe?

I live in Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island where water is omnipresent and lush nature. In Deshaies, my city of residence, I am surrounded by mountains. My garden is a true haven of peace, rich in a wide variety of plant and floral species. Birds, especially hummingbirds, find refuge in converted shelters and forage the many flowers. This enchanting environment allows me to recharge my batteries and live in a fairytale bubble.

I want to create sweet and poetic works that reflect this inspiration.

Your color palettes are vibrant and expressive. How do you choose colors for each piece, and what emotions do you hope to evoke?

In general, I have an overall idea of my final achievement, but I often let myself be guided by instinct. I like colors and I try to combine them harmoniously. For me, it is essential to feel a sense of well-being, fullness and love for my work, an emotion that I aspire to transmit to the public.

When a visitor confides in me that he felt a real emotional discharge while contemplating my work, I am deeply touched and incredibly happy, because it means that I have achieved my goal: “let your emotions speak”.

Some of your works depict symbolic forms like hearts and feminine figures. What themes or personal stories do you explore through these motifs?

Frida Khalo is an artist whom I deeply admire. Her self-portraits, the audacity of her colors and the depth of the subjects she addressed in her paintings resonate particularly with me.

My project is to capture the essence of the Woman – with a large “F” because in French woman is written « FEMME » like Frida – describing the Woman (Femme) as fantastic, fierce, fabulous, crazy (Folle) , furious, feline, fascinating, proud (Fière), faithful, fiery and fierce.

In my works, the heart symbolizes not only moral qualities, emotions, passions, will, courage, thought, intelligence, memory, love and faith, but also the physical image of the two hemispheres of the human heart. This brings us back to the reality of us on earth.

You have exhibited your works in Guadeloupe, France, and Switzerland. How does the audience’s cultural background influence their interpretation of your art?

It is recent because it is since 2024 that I have fully realized my identity as an artist. Exhibiting my works is essential and paramount for me, because I do not create these paintings only for my personal pleasure. I have a deep need to share my passion and perceive the emotions, whatever they are, that my work arouses in the public.

My practice is quite unique, because I associate two mediums in an unusual way. The initial reactions of the public are often questioning and surprise, before the depth and stupor revealed in the face of the technicality used, especially for quilling. Patience remains, of course, the key word of my process.

I work according to my inspirations, and each series represents a key moment in my life where I engage in an intense creative process. Once a series is completed, a new inspiration will take over, and so on.

From her daughter, Maéva «Words do not have enough density to express the power of the relationship I have with my mother.

What constitutes me in my purest essence is probably similar to it.

I admire her even more every day because I know her history so well, our history… She inspires me, by her determination to be the best version of herself with rigor and flexibility.

His art is a quest, it allows him to accomplish his purpose.

She expresses through her works a message of life, hope, joy, resilience, healing, unconditional and universal love.

Nicky, my mother, is a philosophical artist.

His art is spiritual, it is a daily state of mind, it is his breath of life…”