DECORATIVE PAINTING

Decorative painting is an ancestral know-how declined under several forms. It has developed over the centuries and today it continues to develop with techniques that are both ancient and contemporary. This craft represents a major part of the European heritage.

A short history of decorative painting

Most craft trades have their origins in prehistoric times, each of them being based on the work of the hand. Decorative painting is one of them. It can be found in the Lascaux caves among others, where men dressed the walls of the caves with representations made with blood, earth, or pigments, using tools such as bones, feathers, fingers or pieces of wood.

Since then, this know-how has not disappeared and has been evolving with the times. The supports have changed, the rocks have become frescos in 1800 BC in Mesopotamia. It has continued its way in Ancient Egypt with hieroglyphs and figurative scenes. At the time of Ancient Greece, the decorative painting has been found on the walls of buildings, in trompe l’oeil in particular. Pompeii is one of the most representative sites of Roman decorative painting. In the Middle Ages, this know-how has been at the service of religion and has taken place in churches especially during the Romanesque period. From the Renaissance, it has been found in palaces.

The decorative painting is still evolving. We find it in private homes, in theaters. It takes various forms and supports: trompe l’oeil, representations of materials, on walls, on the ground, outside, etc. The techniques are diverse and at the service of the creation but also of the restoration.

Delphine Nény, decorative painter specialized in reverse painting on glass and eglomerate

Delphine Nény is a decorative painter. She began her university studies at Académie Roederer and at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Cergy Pontoise. Thanks to internships and a started career in a company, she developed her expertise to continue to learn the various techniques and especially to work on exceptional sites.

With all these experiences, she is aware of the diversity of her trade. Also, she wants to experiment as much as possible with existing techniques. This state of mind has led her master the technique of reverse painting and eglomerate which are applied on very challenging supports. Indeed, they do not allow any repentance and requires to paint in reverse. Today, she is one of the few to master this know-how.