Since early September, the art class at Château du Bois-la-Croix has been thriving. A new time slot was added upon request, and both groups are now almost full. Some of our artists are learning the fundamentals of drawing and observational painting, while others, more experienced, are developing their own visual narratives.

Last night, our beginners faced a still life made of a pair of ballet pointe shoes from Artemis Irenäus’s wardrobe — a pair she bought four years ago but never wore.

Why paint ballet shoes?
Because it’s a story.

Painting a still life with ballet shoes — those delicate, sometimes worn-out objects — means entering a visual poetry that is at once technical, emotional, symbolic, and existential.
It’s a way of learning to see. To slow down. To listen to the silence of things.
That’s where still life becomes deeply human: it captures time, emotion, and memory, and gives voice to what usually remains silent.
The shoes speak of an absent body — the dancer’s — and invite us to imagine her story.

There is still beauty, where the world no longer looks.