Erika TOMAS

Artistic approach

"My work focuses on retranscribing and safeguarding, or forgetting and even denying memories.
What do we do with what is passed down to us? What do we keep? What do we, in turn, want to pass on?

The successive layers of different colours and materials of varying densities are reworked, both during and after drying, before being covered with further layers. The material will therefore "rise", crack and fissure, revealing layers of colour nestled in the depths.

Using writing so it can't be deciphered: once more, the quest for sense or meaning is of little importance as words only have a real meaning at a given time and in a given situation. It's up to each of us to develop our own meaning at every moment in our lives. They are simply written on the canvasses to avoid forgetting the importance of each of them in creating links between people: a fragile vehicle for our past, our conscious and unconscious memory, present and future.

I have come to hate anything flat, smooth or flawless, so I use sheets of paper (which are always thick in order to bear the weight of the oil and material). I use plain paper sheets which, once subjected to paint (oil), humidity (binder fluids and water) and solids (powders and pigments), become furrowed and misshapen. They are then stuck to cardboard, canvass or wood without further ado."

Érika Tomas

Technique

Érika Tomas uses a mixed technique:
An oil base followed by layers of raw pigments.
Addition of cellulose and vinyl or acrylic binders depending on the desired effects and types of pigments. The upper layers are fixed using a spray varnish, traditional varnish or wax.

A short biography

Érika Tomas was born in 1963 near Paris. After studying photography in Toronto, Canada, she became official photographer for the Denise Renée gallery in Paris and produced numerous photographic reports for companies. She increased her personal research and solo exhibitions and saw her work recognised by the French National Library and the French National Professional Photography Group.

Érika Tomas then chose to focus on styling as well as tracking down materials for fabric manufacturers.

From the year 2000, Érika Tomas ran and developed a workshop for the expression, artistic creation and personal development of mentally-disabled adults.

Since then, she has increasingly focused on painting, exhibiting her work in the south of France, her home when she is neither in London or Paris.