Interview by Didier Royer - Rénovation Magazine 

Rénovation: Throughout your work, one gets the impression that you're very attached to nature.
Jezel: Yes, I love its force, its mystery, its beauty, its birth and re-birth..... It’s a major source of inspiration to me. You can also see throughout my work the predominance of the colours blue and green, which are the colours that are the most representative of my inner vision. I also get my inspiration from different travels which I find enriching. Discovering other horizons, colours, cultures, odours and people are inspirational for my work. These are very important for my expression. In my opinion, Painting is above all else a work of sincerity, which ideally should be executed with the profound emotions of day-to-day life.

Rénovation: Are your travels also interiorised?
Jezel: Somewhere along the line it is parallel in that I myself am in the process of making a personal voyage in life, parrallel to my work. It's a personal growth voyage, which involves my personality, my character, my story and so on...both are connected. I find myself in phases where I get to explore, because I am naturally curious. This period, if you prefer to call it the 'nature' phase, I am currently exploring and I have not yet fulfilled my curiosity nor finished experimenting.. I still have a lot to do. The day I feel ready, I'll move on to the next phase but not before. 

Rénovation: Do you know the next phase?
Jezel: Not at all. I cannot predict my personal evolution that depends on the obstacles I will come across in life. All I can do is following my instincts. For the moment, I'm not thinking of the future, I'm living and exploring with what I've have, trying to go as deep as I can in that area. My resource is what I've discovered throughout the world.

Rénovation: Is there a research for purity in your work that could be parallel with the theme that you've chosen?
Jezel: In my paintings, nature is pure and not violated. It has not been subjected to man's destruction. The usage of the colours is complex in that they represent what I feel within.

Rénovation: What first gave you the desire to paint?
Jezel: When I was a child, my mother painted still life, so at an early age I began sketching. My mother saw this and started to encourage me by buying me paint and taking me to museums. When I was a teenager, fine arts were my favourite subject and I received a very classical 'Beaux Art' education in England. Some years later, I began to have a strong desire to put aside this education and developed my style. I wouldn't say that I completely rejected it because obviously it served as a good base for my technique. However, I decided that it wasn't me and I needed to express something that was more personal, something closer to my experiences and my personal evolution. Since my childhood, painting seemed to be something evident. 

Rénovation: What is the essence of this exhibition?
Jezel: I’ve come to Guadeloupe several times before and its natural beauty, as well as its mixed cultural heritage has marked me. This was an inspiration for part of this exhibition. I wanted to share these sentiments, as well as my life experiences. 

Propos recueillis par la Galerie Michèle Cazanove  

Michèle Cazanove: What does painting signify for you?
Jezel: For me, painting is not something that you can define. Personally, I can only speak in terms of the emotions that it generates within me. Painting signifies for me allot of love and passion, an intensity that gives rise to much frustration, as well as fear, as one is obliged to work with one's inner soul. I think that painting is primarily an affair of sincerity. Perhaps the greatest quality an artist can have is authenticity.

Jezel is above all a colourist, or more precisely a lover of colour, two colours in particular / Green and Blue. Jezel harmonises then incorporates them into soft gestures, which from time to time become intense, but at the same time continuing in fluid movements.
Jezel throws herself into her preferred colours with much familiarity, which when observing, emerges coherently from her artwork.

Jezel: None the less my Landscapes are without exception, my own interpretation. I do not make an interpretation of the world as it exists, but my own internal universe transferred onto the world, which is why my work often has an abstract side to it. 

Michèle Cazanove: Do you plan to work towards pure abstraction?
Jezel: I can't really say. For the moment my work is in between abstract and figuration. I enjoy painting landscapes, but not realistic landscapes but those that correspond with my inner vision which instantaneously transposes the mystery I see in nature. 

‘Jezel works blues and greens with a soft gesture,
across imaginary landscapes that correspond with her visions within.’
(Gallery Casanove, FWI)

‘Her work gives out an attaching impression
of freshness and escapism which allows us to dream.(Ivory Coast Tourist Office, Milan, Italy)

‘Situated between figuration and abstraction, one can take a double look at each painting, resulting in a long lasting and profound reflection.’
(Opéra Art Gallery, Paris)

‘Between realism and abstraction, in an indefinable flow of colour, Jezel allows us to travel in depths of her imagination.’
(Channel10, FWI)