Events - 6 Nov 21

Emmanuelle Tenailleau believes that painting has the power to give meaning and feeling to shapes and colors. It offers the experience of visually feeling what cannot be said with words. Painting can express wonder, worry, happiness, loneliness… It takes us to what is buried in each of us.

She describes her style as figurative, without being classic, because the world as she perceives it, reveals forms that inspire her: the shadow of a tree trunk, the cut of a leaf, the posture of a kneeling man, a child running, a woman walking, the plumage of a bird. For the past two years, her painting has been inspired by fairy tales. She creates figures of children grappling with the world that they are discovering with courage and questioning. Emmanuelle Tenailleau feels that life oscillates between the imaginary and reality which confront each other and/or connect. The figure of the wolf, for example, embodies fear, without us knowing whether this fear is real or imagined.

The artists she met during her childhood, through her grandfather Jean Commère, and her career in an art gallery and in visual art journalism played a major role in her artistic education. She also developed her creativity thanks to her visits to many museums. She pursued a university course at Paris Sorbonne (History, Art History and Visual Arts) before becoming an expert in modern and contemporary painting. She is a member of the Chambre nationale des experts spécialisés (CNES) since 2006 and of the Maison des Artistes.

The Saturday Reading Group is for anyone who loves to read, socialize in English, and meet new people.

The November read for the group is Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They’re completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating. As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together.

Meetings are once a month on Saturday afternoons starting at 3 pm. Open to all library members. To sign up please contact the group coordinator at bookgroup@ellia.org.