Valerie Gaudemer-Maker

Gallery 4463 Artist, Valerie Gaudemer-Maker was born in Paris, France in 1962. She grew up in Rueil-Malmaison, between Versailles and Paris, amongst all the little towns along the river Seine painted by the Impressionists, who fascinated her by their ability to paint spontaneous scenes and their delicate mastering of light, especially when captured in outdoor sceneries. She graduated from Paris-X University, where she received a Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Languages and started working in Paris for a German company in the industry. After a while, always attracted to various forms of arts, she started learning the art of matting and framing. After having framed many pieces for friends and family, she decided to start painting and mat her own pieces, then extending the painting onto the mat. Her favorite medium is watercolor, and she took her first watercolor classes with French artist Marie-Ange Choupis in the fall of 1994 and over the next 4 years, with special workshops by international artist Roland Palmaerts. During that time, she sold about 50 pieces of watercolor paintings, matted and framed, featuring a variety of scenes from the extremely varied landscapes and architecture of France and neighboring countries.

On June 4th, 1998, after spending the day with a few painting friends in Monet's beautiful house and gardens of Giverny, which a lot of American tourists enjoy visiting wonderful place, as well as the adjacent American Art Museum, she felt a strong call to come and start a new life in the United States. Luckily, she was able to easily get a job transfer within the company and moved to Atlanta within 3 months, in the fall of 1998. After getting settled in, she started painting the various places in the United States where she had a chance to travel to on business or for leisure.

Val�rie was invited to present her artwork at the Holiday party of the Southern Center for International Studies in Atlanta in December 2001, and also showed her work at the Forum Gallery of the Defoor Center in Buckhead in 2002. She met husband Tim in 2001 and they got married in the summer of 2002. Unfortunately, just one week short of their first wedding anniversary, Tim got called up as a reservist in the National Guard and had to spend one year away from home, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. During that time, Val�rie put aside her painting, trying to cope with the absence and participating in activities to support the troops under her husband's command. Almost a year after his return, they were blessed with the birth of daughter Melanie, who was then Valerie's main focus besides Tim and work.

After a couple of years, Val�rie felt the need to revert to her artistic passion and in May 2008 became a member of Gallery 4463 in Acworth, where she resides with her family. Her favorite subjects are landscapes, seascapes, and old buildings who have withstood time and look like they are proud to show that they made it through the years. She loves to paint nature, because it is always a supporting element to her. If we manage to keep it in good condition, nature is and will always be there, beautiful even in its most adverse form. It has always provided her with a comforting feeling, probably dating back from her childhood, as she grew up surrounded by it.

Although she would like to try many different media, she feels that for the time being she should still focus on watercolor - one of the most challenging ones in her opinion, due to the high degree of flexibility and humbleness one has to show towards the actions/reactions of the pigments and the water, depending on the surrounding conditions - especially when painting outdoors, as well as on the kind of paper used. The result does not always turn out to be what was being sought, because of the wind, or because a drop of water falling off the brush, and one has to learn to turn all the little imperfections into new ideas and go from there.

This is My Challenge!