Sakura Ki

Corine Lescop was born in Canada from French parents, which gave her dual nationalities from birth. At the age of 10, her family moved to France, which represented the first step of her world tour, immersing herself in the cultural pool of old European traditions.

This change of life, climate, landscapes, and customs is an opportunity for her to sharpen her artistic sense, which she will do through the attendance of painting workshops, in particular, that of Caroline Corre, in her artistic center in Verderonne, Oise, where she will spend many years observing and learning.

She opens her eyes, heart, and mind to the colors of the world, her interest in African art – born from her time spent in the Ivory Coast – as well as her intuition for the abstract help her get accepted at the age of 17 to the Beaux-Arts de Paris. Corine then enters Yankel’s workshop, son of the world-renowned Kikoïne de la Ruche – close friend to Soutine, Modigliani, and other masters.

She chooses the US, land of all superlatives, for her second initiatory journey. There she will develop her personality as well as an affinity for grandiose landscapes. The most intense cultural shock will undoubtedly be that of Orient. From her first experience in Japan, Corine keeps the endearing memory of a captivating culture and civilization, from then on devoted to painting and traveling.

Freshly graduated from the Beaux-Arts, she goes back to Tokyo and starts her career via art galleries, exhibitions in major malls across Japan – very dynamic in the promotion of artists – but also through private galleries in the Ginza neighborhood, the Japanese equivalent of the Champs-Élysées.

She then continues her Japanese adventure, steadily growing her reputation all through the six years spent living between France and The Land of the Rising Sun, where she acquires the knowledge of the Japanese language that she speaks fluently. Always driven by a thirst for adventure, she will visit a multitude of Asian countries, and study the Chinese language as well, which she is still learning to this day.

Back in Europe, Corine settles down in Brussels, Belgium, where she finds the tranquility needed to continue her painting, as well as pursuing her quest of Asian cultures through the study of Japanese calligraphy first, during three years, then Chinese, which precedes it by millennia.

This ancestral art very quickly becomes a source of inspiration that seeps through her own creations. Corine now does exhibitions in France, Belgium, and exposes calligraphy to a public then little familiar with this form of expression.

During an exhibition in Paris at the “Impression” gallery in 2004, Corine meets Chinese artists who, seduced by her work, give her a unique opportunity: to exhibit in Beijing on the occasion of the French-Chinese year of 2005. The stars are aligning for Corine, who accepts without a shred of hesitation.

An outstanding venue would host the exhibition: The National Archives of the Forbidden City.
She would, later on, have the privilege of being featured at the Central Institute of Fine-Arts of Beijing and other art institutes throughout China.

Her notoriety grows year after year in Chinese artistic circles, where her rare qualities as a calligrapher do not go unnoticed by the current actors of the discipline. Thrilled to invite an occidental to their exhibitions, they put Corine’s work – for which they do not hide their admiration – in the spotlight.

She keeps on exhibiting in Europe and Asia in several museums, next to members of the collective from the Institute for the Chinese Writing Research Institute, who has adopted her – rare privilege, in a country where this art maintains considerable importance throughout the ages, and where European who practice it are considered with a certain restraint.

Her attraction for the Chinese language and writing – enriched by five years of self-taught studies, unquestionably opens doors. She demonstrates her profound interest in the culture itself and has no pain being taken seriously by Chinese art representatives in search of legitimate and worthwhile European ambassadors.

This new adventure in a China awakening to the West will develop her taste for contemporary Chinese art, so rich these days. From now on, her work will be influenced also by Chinese figurative painting. She will also sometimes add ideograms purely for aesthetics.

For a few years now, her exhibitions in Brussels multiply, during a period of her life she will dedicate to the exploration of new artistic waters, devoting herself to collections touching on the themes of Nature, the Human Body, as well as landscapes that she will have the opportunity to admire during her last stay in the South-West of China.

Calligraphy has been present for 30 years in her work, where even in her landscapes, poetic references give life to sceneries.