Exhibition: "Murmures des sous-bois" ("Woodland Whispers")
Léa Layeux, AKA Oxaléa, was born on the high plateaux of the Vercors mountains. She knows all about the forest wildlife, trees, flora and fungi. After training in technical laboratory science, she discovered a passion for plant biology and began composing artworks from plants. Her enthusiasm increased further when she had an opportunity to settle in La Giettaz, a small, protected village in the Aravis mountains, deep in the Arly Valley. She fulfilled a dream with the creation of her "herbarium workshop", through which she shares her passion and helps people to create their own herbarium based on their mountain hikes.
Driven by the profound conviction that fear of the unknown must urgently be transformed by a better understanding and preservation of nature, Oxaléa strives to raise awareness and educate the public through new discoveries.
First and foremost, her artworks are the result of her own feelings of awe at whatever catches her eye along the mountain paths, heightening her senses and inviting her to explore its microscopic beauty. Taking inspiration from nature's arrangements of foliage, grasses or bark, Oxaléa creates pictures from the plants she gathers so mindfully. The result is mischievous, sometimes subtle, often indirect, but always questioning our relationship to nature. She makes a determined and enlightened statement: "It's time to observe what's at our feet instead of looking to the heavens."
At the exhibition site, the artist organises two herbarium workshops, one for children, the other using gold leaf to decorate plants, for adults and older children.
