GABRIELLE VINCENT

GABRIELLE VINCENT ERNEST AND CELESTINE Au jour le jour, Éditions Duculot 1992 Guirlandes en fête, original cover. Watercolor on paper 32.2 × 25 cm (12.68 × 9.84 in.) Ernest has the right idea for the day: to make "garlands to decorate the house" with the mountains of flowers picked by Célestine; but she finds the project a little flat and suggests inviting friends. I mean, why decorate if nobody's going to enjoy it? The room is surprisingly tidy, like a state of floral grace, with no room for ambient clutter. The usual objects scattered on the floor - hats, shoes, cuddly toys, pots and pans, food - are replaced by delicate flower petals scattered here and there, like a motif recalling the garland, not laid at random, a delicate, rhythmic visual relay, and the large basin that catches the eye first like a necessary airlock before visually reaching Ernest and Celestine. "I believe there's one essential condition for a successful album: the personal pleasure of the author-illustrator who draws and writes. (...) Drawing first and foremost for oneself, and with joy. Letter from Monique Martin to her Japanese publisher, 1994