Untamed

Naïma is a French artist living in Bordeaux, France. She was born in Normandie and grew up surrounded by the art and spirit of the old masters and impressionists painters. Visiting the home of Claude Monet at age 11 changed her life. Her memory of wandering in his gardens and discovering his art made her dream to become an artist. 

Her art is filled with French romanticism, symbolisms and poetry. 

She loves to paint the sensations we experience in nature, the present moment as well as the feminine energy. She paints expressive portraits, poetic still life and French countryside scenes. 

Her influences come from artists such as Arthur Rimbaud, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, but also pre-raphaelites painters such as John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti for their romanticism and representation of the feminine. She is also fond of dutch artists for their floral still life paintings. 

She nourishes her soul by spending time in France's beautiful museums, chateaux, villages and gardens always exploring and learning. The wild nature, fauna and flora is a huge inspiration for her art.

A traveler at heart, she loves to experience wild encounters, especially with wolves, her favorite animal. These experiences make her feel alive and enriched her art with real meaning, conveying a genuine expression of what it feels like to be in symbiosis with nature and oneself. 

Her art is feminine and poetic, encouraging viewers to always trust their heart and reconnect with their true, wild self.

 

il était une fois...

"I was 11 years old when I visited Claude Monet's home, museums and gardens near Paris, with my school. I was not used to leave home so this voyage was an amazing experience for me as a child. It connected me to a world filled with art and poetry I instantly connected with. It felt like home to be there.

When I came back home, I was even more excited to keep sketching. I was using my encyclopedias as a source to reproduce animals. My favorites were the wolf, falcons, swan...I also enjoyed a lot sketching flowers and trees.

Art classes were my favorite moment at school and I started to think that later in life I would like to become a professional artist. When it was time to voice our future wishes before high school, I was not encouraged to pursue this road."

"We do not all have the same opportunity to access education and do what we love... I had to do a lot of jobs I didn't liked before I could make those dreams come true. In my home, women were not free. I felt insecure, I lacked self confidence, I felt unseen and I had to face a lot of traumas. It is only at age 38 that I decided to give myself a chance to become the woman I dreamt to be for so long."

After high school, Naïma learnt graphic design on her own and decided to start her own business, but yet she didn't felt fulfilled. She was still holding inside her wild creativity. 

She then reconnected to her roots and went back to henna art that she learnt during a holiday in Morocco when she was 10. Doing henna for weddings made her grow as an artist. It helped her believe more and more in herself until the day she finally allowed herself to rise. 

In 2017, she met an amazing and brave woman while on holiday in California who pushed her to go back to paint. She felt empowered by this woman who believed in her. The day she came back home, she bought art supplies and started to paint. 

At age 38, she took a portfolio class and oil painting classes with Milan Art Institute that led her to finally find her voice and become a professional artist. 

Every day, she paints and continue to develop her style; Inspiring other women to find their voices, pursue their dreams and reconnect to their heart's desires. Her huge passion for impressionists painters led her to start painting plein air more and more. 

Rimbaud through his poems pushes us to wake things up, to awaken the animal, plant and animal world. He wanted us to explore all our senses and feel everything. Rimbaud was the first poet that truly touched my heart when I was in school, learning his prose... He inspired me as an artist and as a young woman back then to explore life and be bold. To be creative and see beyond my eyes. He awakened my wild spirit and made me invent the life I wanted without boundaries.