Nathalie Lété is a French artist working in many ways and mixing different techniques and media: illustration, painting, sculpture, textile, ceramics.
Belle Vie Paris is very happy and proud to offer to you Nathalie's work, which is colorful, naive, poetic and rooted in popular and folk art.
Last December, we had the chance to visit her atelier located in the suburbs of Paris where she lives and works and to interview her to talk about her story and her life.
Nathalie, who are you and what is your background?
I was born in France to a German mother and Chinese father.
After I studied fashion at the Duperré school of Applied Arts in Paris, and lithography at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, I worked during ten years in collaboration with my then boyfriend under the name “Mathias and Nathalie”.
Then, at 30 years old, I met my husband and when my two kids were born, I began working by myself, finding a new style. I started to draw what was around me, my daughter's toys and vintage toys in general, then flowers, animals and everything linked to the comforting childhood world. It reminded me the things I loved as a child and the stories I would invent, between fairy tales and real life.
Could you tell us more about your work and where you find your inspiration?
It could be anything, something I see on the web, a poster in the street, a movie decor, exhibitions, travels. When you travel and see different things you are not used to, it triggers the inspiration.
I could work and paint anywhere in the world, as long as I paint, because this is really what I like to do.
Your atelier is an amazing place: tell us more about it?
This is an old industrial building we bought 20 years ago, open on a little garden, hybrid place in between the city and the countryside, bright and with high ceilings.
Right now, it is very very full. I don't have enough space to work.
What does Beauty mean for you?
Harmony, Softness, Someone.
What is Happiness for you?
Currently, with my lover.
What is your Motto?
Remember what you liked to do when you were a child.
This is what I am saying to moms who panic when their children don't know what to do for a living.
We tend to forget when we grow up...
I am right into it! I am doing what I have always loved. When I was a child, I was drawing and tinkering all the time and I also loved telling stories.
Favorite flower: Dahlia
Favorite color: Pink
Favorite travel: Switzerland, in a hilly & bucolic place in the countryside, with openings on the sky
Favorite song: A song of Michel Berger
Favorite French artist: The painter Pierre Bonnard
Favorite French place: My country house in Fontainebleau
Favorite French recipe: An almond Croissant
Favorite place in Paris: The Seine banks. I like crossing the bridges.
Favorite French word: Bonjour, "Toi et Moi", "C'est pour Toi", "Je t'aime"*. Sweet words I use a lot in my drawings and paintings. *"You and Me", "This is for You", "I Love You".
Merci Nathalie !
