Marie-Amélie Chéreau is a French painter, and writer known for her spiritual abstract paintings done in oils. Through her personal experience of traumas and healing she designs stunning works that speak beyond text and can be interpreted as a kind of commentary on humanism and love as well as bringing people together. Her art heals and inspires.
Describe a typical working day
I don’t have a typical day! I work very intuitively. I tend to plan over a month or two. I know the projects I want to work on and what I aim to accomplish during that period, but I let things unfold naturally, “in the flow.” Everything comes together quite spontaneously. Being an artist isn’t just about locking yourself away in the studio, painting, and focusing on the creative process. It’s also about being nourished by others and the world. I spend a lot of time networking, attending art fairs, visiting museums, and meeting other artists and galleries. These interactions enrich my development and my work. A significant portion of my time is also dedicated to managing my career—PR, social media, business development. I am just as much an entrepreneur as I am an artist. Talent alone is far from enough to “exist” as an artist today. It’s as much about “knowing how” as it is about “making yourself known.”
Do you have a favorite space for creating your artwork?
My studio! I can spend hours there, even when I’m not actively creating. Sometimes, I just sit quietly, observing my paintings or works in progress. I let them guide me—they speak to me in ways that words can’t. Each piece reveals something, showing me the next step, the direction I need to take. It’s a silent, powerful dialogue that shapes my process.
How does an ideal day of creating look like?
I never finish a painting in one day. I work with oil, layering successive coats that take several days or even weeks to dry. I often work on multiple paintings at once, and I rarely paint for more than 2 or 3 hours at a stretch. My work is very physical. Often, I enter a trance-like state when I paint. The emotional and energetic intensity is so strong that I can’t continue for much longer. After a few hours, I have to stop—I’m completely drained. I don’t paint with my mind; I paint with my soul. I’m so deeply invested in the process that it’s hard for me to have anyone else in the studio. I’m no longer “present.” I often find myself crying from emotion—joy, gratitude, or a sense of fulfillment—when I finish a painting. When I paint, I feel like I’m serving a creative energy far greater than myself. I’m just a messenger.
Describe your style of art in a sentence:
Spiritual abstract oil paintings that connect with the soul
Who and what inspired you to be an artist?
I didn’t choose to become an artist. Today, I feel like I was simply born an artist. It just took me a few decades to accept this vocation. At some point, it became obvious, like a calling I had to answer. I feel entrusted with a social or humanitarian mission—to heal hearts and souls through my art. I believe that, without realizing it at the time, I answered Kandinsky’s call. In his famous book “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”(1914), he calls for a spiritual revolution in painting, urging artists to express their inner lives in abstract, non-material forms.
Name three inspirations for your work right now:
light, unity, heal
Is there a particular color palette that you prefer to work with, and what inspires your choice?
White
Tell an interesting story behind a piece you’ve created…
My dearest neighbor gave birth to her second baby girl about a year and a half ago. During those nine months, I often saw her, heard her walking above my head, and felt her energy all around. For no particular reason, I felt connected to her and her pregnancy journey. The day after she gave birth, as I was congratulating her, she sent me a picture of herself with her adorable newborn. In that moment, looking at the picture, I realized that the painting I had finished a few weeks earlier, titled “The Mother“, was actually of her and her baby.
… and one interesting piece you own. Why did you buy it?
A 2010 oil painting by Aya Takano. I see myself in this painting—it reminds me of who I am, why I’m here, and what truly matters to me: freedom, joy, fun, lightness, and constant evolution and movement.
We imagine that inspiration could strike anytime. How do you separate work from free time?
I don’t. Being an artist isn’t work for me—it’s my life. I’m constantly creating (I also write novels). When I need a break, I go walking in nature. I also try to spend a few days here and there in the mountains, hiking or walking.
What reforms would you like to see in the art world?
I seek to push the boundaries of art by demonstrating that every painting carries energetic vibrations that nourish the viewer. To contemplate a piece of art is not merely a visual experience; it is a spiritual, ethereal one. The viewer receives the energy that the artist has “channeled” into the work. I am deeply convinced that paintings can heal, energize, and assist.
How do you think we could change it together?
By educating people to listen to their hearts when buying a piece of art. There are no right or wrong choices. Too many people fear making the “wrong” choice or a poor financial investment. But first and foremost, Art is about nourishing their soul and blessing their home.
Singulart Insight
Marie-Amélie Chéreau has combined spirituality and a depth of feeling in her work, rooted in the power to heal one’s self. Her work approach is organic but can still be described as strategic. We feel her works convey energy to feed the spirits of the viewers. Speaking through paintings, it is found that one gets to see the creativity of the director. Chéreau also keeps individual creativity in check with the responsibilities of business promotion and firm administration. She said art is not only embraced for the beauty it brings but because it has therapeutic qualities with vibrations. Love for her work makes me away; she paints light, unification, and relation and provokes deep thinking about people.
