Dominique Hoffer
La Fête au Village (2024)
Oil on canvas
100 x 120cm
From childhood, Dominique Hoffer has carried with her the memory of countless illustrated tales—those magical, enchanting stories whose images she once carefully copied. Today, she imagines her own fabulous tales and brings them to life on canvas. This creative process fills her days and nights; for Hoffer, daydreams are an endless source of invention, revision, exploration, and refinement.
When an image begins to take shape in her mind, she places a blank canvas on her easel. She gazes at it, diving into the whiteness of its surface, waiting for it to tell her, in turn, the story she envisions.
She chooses the size of each canvas based on the subject and the level of detail the narrative demands. Her settings are almost always outdoor scenes—even though she herself is rather home-loving, as the solitary demands of painting require. Forests—all kinds of forests—have long held a deep fascination for her. In a little secret cabinet, she keeps a vast collection of photographs: greenery, ancient woodlands, forests from around the world, along with images of characters, animals, and curious objects.
The subjects in her compositions are intentionally incongruent; they coexist on the canvas but would never meet in real life—hence, the fairy tale. Like a theatre stage, she arranges photo collages on the blank canvas using an array of characters, animals, vehicles, and objects. She spends hours selecting them, making quick sketches on loose sheets, discarding most. Once the final selection is made, she sketches each element in pencil, transforming the figures entirely while preserving their posture and proportions. Her goal is to render animals and objects with precision, while weaving together disparate settings into a cohesive whole.
Hoffer is a devoted admirer of Hieronymus Bosch and Bruegel. Once the drawing is complete, she begins to paint, often layering three to four coats of pigment to achieve the desired effect.
There is always a moment when she knows a work is finished—the story is complete, and everything aligns with her original vision. That is when the title appears. With each work, she seeks to invite the viewer into a world that is uniquely their own—one in which they, too, might reinvent their own story.
If interested in the works, please get in touch with the artist via email: dominique.hoffer@windowslive.com