Today we’d like to introduce you to Armelle Ngo.
Hi Armelle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in a small town near Sancerre in France and moved to Paris at the age of 14, spending all my free time in indie movie theaters and art museums, where my passion for art started. I remember telling myself in front of a Gauguin that I could have painted the Tahitian woman’s body better. How pretentious of young me, lol! In high school, art classes were the ones I was looking forward to the most each week. I went to college to become an English and German translator and interpreter and was able to travel a lot for my job. I lived and worked in Switzerland, Germany, and Ireland before moving to California ten years ago with my husband and our kids. I had never been in the United States before and felt transported when discovering California. After all, this is kind of the other side of the world, when you come from Europe! The beauty of it never ceases to amaze me and I feel an immense privilege to witness it every single day. I will never be blasé.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Raising three young kids so far from home while giving up my job had left me feeling lonely with a lack of purpose so when I found out that my kids’ school didn’t have any art program, I had to get involved and decided to volunteer in the classroom for the program called “Young At Art”. Doing and teaching art to kids made it obvious that I had found my call and that I had to keep doing this.
I started to paint Southern California the way I see it, turning my emotions into dramatic lines and colors but it took me a while first to even show my work and second to call myself an artist. Where I come from, an artist is someone who comes from art school, or who has his work in prestigious galleries, and who definitely belongs to elite circles. There was no way I could be that. People around me in Southern California think very differently and this has really given me to think about what it means to be an artist.
Today, I do art everyday, I am putting myself out there, donating my work to fundraising auctions, participating in art shows and art fairs. I also proudly joined the South Bay Artist Collective, an amazing nonprofit organization that supports artists and children in the community and fosters creativity in young minds. There is so much more to paint, so much more to learn and so much more to share.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I like painting on large canvases because they allow me to feel a closer physical connection to my subject. The human body is a recurrent element in my painting journey but not the only one. I am inspired by Southern California where I moved to 10 years ago. In my art, I try to share my permanent state of wonder and my gratitude for the privilege of living at the beach. When I came here from Ireland, I had never been in the United States my whole life. So I guess that even though I paint things that have been painted before, I see the landscape and the culture with a personal and candid eye, like a first-time visitor.
To say a few words about my style, I use tape to create clean and pure lines. My goal is to capture the light with colors and contrasts. I want to depict an identity or a feeling rather than a realistic subject. Ultimately, it’s all about simplifying to get to the essence of something.
The best compliment that someone gave me was that my paintings made her feel good. That truly felt special.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
My favorite book ever is « The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh » (Penguin Classics) by Vincent Van Gogh himself.
No other artist moves me like he does.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://armellengo.wixsite.com/armellesatelierla
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armellesatelier/
