Background

Horses have always played a part in Bénédicte Gelé’s life, although they have not always been in the limelight.
Born in 1975 and brought up in the Parisian suburbs, she had no prior history with horses. The animal remained a two-dimensional object in magazines or sometimes a figure in the background of a distant meadow when on holiday. However, an overwhelming fascination, an almost unexplainable attraction and a particular bewitchment encouraged her to strive and spend more and more time with these animals.

After obtaining a baccalaureate in Applied Arts and a further certificate in Visual Communication, she became a graphic designer and then artistic director before falling in love with a lively, clever little mare, she started drawing horses with quiet obsession.

In 2004, her professional and equestrian lives seemed to merge with horses, of course, as the cornerstone.

Her approach

Just like a stranger in a strange land, a horse needs to understand, to make itself understood and to be understood.

Interested in animal ethology, and particularly that of the horse, with a view to learning how to communicate with them, Bénédicte Gelé studied, observed and then relayed the expressions or postures illustrating their behaviour in either tight portrait or full body form. Keenly in tune with their well-balanced anatomy and rounded form, Bénédicte does not strive for the perfect horse, but works rather to render a faithful, yet free, drawing that suggests the real movement, expression, action or regard.