The garden
designers
As a consultant for the creation and enhancement of gardens and cultural landscapes, Michel Racine contributes to the programming and design of gardens and to the development of tourism adapted to the landscapes. He is the author of numerous publications, including several reference works on gardens and garden creators, and in 1990 he wrote the Guide to Gardens in France, which has been continuously updated ever since. In 2006, after the discovery of his thesis COULEURS (COLOURS) in the history of gardens 2006 and of his talent for transforming space using colour, he joined up with the artist Béatrice Saurel to develop projects in which he seeks to transcend the views of landscape architects and gardeners through a strong plastic arts approach. Currently, they are creating the “Association de compétences” (Skills Association) together, a structure open to a dialogue between complementary skills, the message from them all being reflected on the garden and landscape and/or do some work on them.
From her studio to nature itself, Béatrice Saurel for some years has been continuing to create work based on the concept of Human Nature, plastic research into man’s position in his living landscapes. Her interventions on and in nature range from paintings to garden projects and artist’s installations in nature. She gave the name “c0l0rès©” to her projects involving the transformation of space using colour, and more particularly wood areas, where the tree is adorned like a man’s or woman’s body. Painting trunks in colour is dressing them, with natural pigments and binders, to translate their vitality into poetry. Colour is also clothing on trunks, like rags on nail trees, a call for attention, a prayer. A prayer to take care of the tree. Through colour, she transforms her trees into a sacred wood, a human nature, closer to the forest of columns of the Torii gates of Kyoto’s temples than to the forest of a nature park. - “Painting trees is touching what is sacred.” Since 2006 she has been working with Michel Racine on landscape projects within the framework of “Association de compétences” (Skills Association).
