Par Julia Gualtieri
Published on 17 Jul 22 at 16:03
Seen from the outside, the Notre-Dame de Lesches church does not look like much. But inside, the liveliness of the paintings makes it a church as remarkable as it is original. Another particularity is that an artist from the town, Nicole Michigan, is the author.
Except that due to large-scale work carried out since 2020, some representations have been damaged. So, despite these 77 years, the artist goes back on the scaffolding to do the covers with an enthusiasm that has not waned.
Take back paintings damaged by works
Nicole Michigan remembers perfectly these 6 years where she spent, between 1983 and 1989his days with his nose glued to the ceiling of the nave, to carry out the 253 biblical scenes that dress the church and that she thought like a comic strip.
Today, here she is once more several meters high, palette and brushes in hand.
During the works which must make it possible to give steeple foundations which threatened to fall, large wooden props had to be placed to ensure the stability of the building. A removal of the paintings was planned, but it turned out to be much more difficult than expected and some ended up in pieces.
“There are maybe 2m2 on both sides,” says Nicole Michigan. After redrawing the composition of the erased parts, it will now give them life, relief, detail. “The real work starts now,” she sums up.
“It’s hard to copy yourself!” »
However, the tables will not be exactly the same. “I try to stay as close as possible to what already exists. But it’s hard to copy yourself, 35 years later. Inevitably, we evolve over the years…”, she laughs. Especially since she did not keep all the drawings that served as the original framework.
On the color side, on the other hand, there will be total continuity: “I have always worked with Dutch-made paints, quality pigments that still exist. It’s my great organ,” she comments, pointing to her palette.
She envisions this new work like a puzzle of which it updates certain parts. Her self-portrait, for example, will be aged (no, she doesn’t spare herself) and new models have come to provide her with a source of inspiration for the parts for which she no longer has the frame.
Because Nicole Michigan has represented many children and inhabitants of the village in her 253 scenes. “It’s a chance for us to have the artist in the village”, emphasizes Christine Gibert. Work on the church might be completed by the end of the year. The artist still has time ahead of her to complete her work!
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