Until the end of January, art lovers will be able to visit the exhibition of 22 paintings and linocuts installed on the walls of the Convent/bar/panorama, during the building’s opening hours. The artist Sophie Thirifays, of Belgian origin (“Nell’art” from her painter’s name and at the same time the title of the exhibition) has recently resided in the Lot valley. She moved last March to the Manisserre district of Prayssac, just below Bélaye, after five years spent in another corner of our department. “I really appreciate the calm that reigns here; nature, the welcome we have received, allows us to live in a peaceful rhythm among our animals: donkey, chickens, cats…” she confides.
Completely self-taught in the artistic field, this former French teacher, converted for a time to jewelry, launched into two different artistic techniques: linocut and painting, oil pastel with gold leaf. Concerning linocut, it deals with the themes of botany and vegetation; she makes one hundred numbered prints of her works (all different) on 100% cotton Japanese paper (used for a very long time in the field of printing in the Far East); Sophie also does not refrain from making watercolors, drawing and writing poems.
“I am a fighter, she says. Aged 50, mother of a daughter working in the cultural field, I have suffered from Parkinson’s disease for several years and other pathologies; my artistic activities give me a reason to live.” And then, an important project is looming on the horizon: Sophie will get married here in August 2025.
