Leila Benguerel
BIOGRAPHY
I was born in Morat and have lived since 2005 in Grolley, near Fribourg, Switzerland. Life has called me to travel a lot round the world as well as to discover numerous professional paths, giving me a multitude of wonderful adventures, encounters, exchanges, and moments of sharing.
Being curious and a seeker by nature, I’ve tried several techniques, from pottery to porcelain painting, to woodturning, and painting, as ways of expressing my creativity. And along the road there have been bonds created while I was learning, support and encouragements given, and important teachings received, all leading me to trust that I could keep going onward and open myself to still more perspectives. “Be the change that you want to see in the world,” is a quote from Gandhi that has stayed with me for a long time and urges me to go further and further.
In 2018 I discovered intuitive oil painting which I find fascinating. At the same time I’ve been taking trance training with some British teachers.
In my works, just as for myself, I allow the light to spread in its full range of colours and thus to be expressed in its full vibratory range. Today, by giving courses in intuitive oil painting, I have the pleasure and good fortune of accompanying others on their path of light.
Artistic approach
At first there is always a meditation, a connecting with my intuition and with the spiritual world, with words, texts, guides or an emotion, which may be sometimes vague or at other times emphatic.
After that comes the real adventure with the canvas, that smooth, white surface that presents itself as a passage, a wise step (play on words in French), towards another world that I’m going to have to capture, feel, and transcribe. I never have any preconceived idea of the outcome. In a way I go into a state of trance, drunkenness, day-dreaming, imagination, and connection, letting myself be guided by the unknown in me, which will manifest itself by the impulses of my hand and the sensations in my body.
In a sense… “I welcome the unexpected!” My paintings are done with water-based oil paint and come alive through my use of pallet knives, brushes, and above all my fingers. Sometimes the process is quite disorganized, since it’s the canvas that decides what comes next. I let myself be guided as I explore all the possibilities that present themselves.
I love working with matter, movement, and colour!
My inner journeys, my encounters, my experiences, my feelings, and above all my intuition are what nourish and guide my creativity.