A Portrait of Provence Through Jamie Beck’s Artist’s Eyes
Interview With American Sensitive Artist Who Got Caught By South Of France Beauties
What is the secret of living a fulfilled life?
This question has no boundaries, no time-lapse, no limits…To answer it, we search meanings in books, in retreats, in travels, in healing therapies, in life experiences…The real answer lies within each and every one of us, and it is an exciting journey and a pure Art to reveal it.
Looking at Jamie Beck’s creations, one could easily get enveloped by its illuminating and inspiring allure of peace, joy and natural beauty. Lights, colors, seasons, fruits and flowers, butterflies, volatile dresses waving in windy rhythms of romantic seasons, life in its purest form – this is it, and this is all. All that we probably need to look at in order to see or rather fill the joy of fulfillment.
From New York to Provence
But Jamie’s life didn’t use to be like this at all. Before moving to Provence, the Texas-born photographer built her career in New York, for major international brands. The tumultuous life and the flashy realm of rushing shadows, deafening sirens, enthusiastic districts and nervous looks, all that vibrating dynamism of New York lights – was suddenly shut off. A slightly terrifying airplane experience was that moment of decision to move to France and to change the pace of her life, reconnect with her inner self. Jamie contemplates now her everyday life in Provence, her home, where she lives with her husband Kevin and baby Eloise. A dreamy life, close to nature, crafted with her artistic touch and the region’s magic fields, chateaux and impressionistic skies.
#IsolationCreation: Creating during the Covid pandemic
Creating beauty out of what every day has to offer in lockdown: this was her challenge and commitment, encouraging others to join. One piece of Art every day, and today, more than 200 000 community tags. A beautiful, powerful and uplifting initiative to share, raise awareness and promote Art, in all its forms and from all the corners of this World.
A tempting invitation
It seems that Provence, this little piece of earth in the South of France, has the secret of reconnection, of self – revelation, of that emotional calm, equilibrium and expressive flourishing.
Jamie Beck’s photographs is a tempting invitation hard to resist. An invitation to step on the other side of the mirror, just like Alice in Wonderland, to re-discover that purity, which is within us all. Jamie documents her everyday life on Instagram, definitely one of the most beautiful and inspiring profiles, just like her personality.
Marie Tesson
Founder
Marie: Your photographs have such a dreamy effect, they make us travel to other times, just as a hypnotic movie or a painting from another epoch, they transmit a whole story. One could easily imagine your works in a museum. In which century or time-lapse do you place yourself emotionally?
Jamie Beck: There is a great simplicity to the subject matter of my work that is universal throughout the ages of time. The flowers that bloom in season, the wild, unaltered natural landscapes that let nature sing her symphonies, the seasonal food that we eat grown in the local dirt that surrounds us, the emotions of life experiences. These are all traits every human experiences but I felt, in the noise of our modern technologies and convinces had been forgotten for the beauty that it is, that is available to all of us. My work is a celebration of that natural way.
Marie: If you had the chance to travel in time and live a life of let’s say, a duchess, a peasant woman, a goddess or a fairy, or anything else, what would you choose?
Jamie Beck: I think I would like to be Léonard de Vinci. Free of mind, intelligent in thought, artistically gifted and able to live a life following his greatest interests that impacted the history of humanity. Otherwise, I think I would like to be a goddess eternally trapped within a Botticelli painting.
Jamie Beck: At first, it started out because I did not know anybody to use as a subject. But, as my experience here grew richer and I began to change, I wanted to document what I was going through emotionally and physically. Unwinding from all the cultural influences and redefining myself in all aspects, using the camera as a way to examine my transitions.
Marie: Provence has been such a muse to you these past years. If Provence would take the shape of a woman, standing in front of you, what would you tell her?
Jamie Beck: Thank you for your gifts. You are the purest form of beauty and life.
Marie: Do you have any favorite, magic spot in Provence to resource yourself?
Marie: Following you, it is so lovely to also follow your little daughter, Eloise, whom we have the chance to admire every week, the way she grows, the way she greets all the catties in the neighborhood, the way she does her everyday routine discoveries, thank you for this doze of sweetness you share with us! How different is her childhood from yours?
Marie: What would today’s Jamie tell to the 20 years Jamie?
Jamie Beck: Hike to the top of the rock above the village of Saignon and enjoy a 360 degree view of the Provencal landscape. We like to come here at sunset, especially in the summer when all the fields of fruits and flowers are in bloom.
Jamie Beck: She is just so darling, so pure her curiosity! Her childhood here in France is the greatest gift I could imagine giving her. Walking in little villages, eating ripened fruits she can herself pick off trees, being away from the pressures of city life. My childhood was wonderful but I didn’t have the charm and quaintness growing up in a small village has brought into Eloise’s life.
Jamie Beck: It gets better when you follow your heart.
Marie: In your Instagram Stories, you often share beautiful paintings and famous quotes. Watching and reading them is like having a book with best quotes and paintings of all times, gathered in one single profile. Do you have any special quote, any favorite of yours, which you eventually pinned on your wall to see it more often?
Jamie Beck: “I must have flowers. Always and always.”― Claude Monet
“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.” -Frank Lloyd Wright
“In a meadow full of flowers you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry of life.”~Jonas Mekas
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
― Albert Camus
Marie: It is so wonderful and motivating to see how you create beauty from your everyday surroundings: flowers, nature, food, books, people, light, and paysages. Your influence on social media is constantly growing. Now that you realize how impactful your Art is, especially after the Isolation Creation series, what is the message you would like to transmit to your wide international audience?
Jamie Beck: Beauty is all around us, it is free for everyone to enjoy. We must see it, cherish it for what it is, and protect it so that it may carry our joys into the future.
Marie: For your followers, what shall we look forward to? Any new coming projects in Provence or elsewhere?
Jamie Beck: I will be selling a small collection of one of a kind Masterworks in an exhibition in Provence this coming May which will also be shoppable in our online gallery space, https://jamiebeck.co/. We are launching also this spring fine art stationary printed in Provence, a limited edition luxury jewelry piece inspired by the sun in the South of France as well as a few other new product surprises! Most importantly, I have a book on Provence being published by Simon and Schuster coming out in 2022. Follow me on instagram @jamiebeck.co for all the newest updates! You can also sign up for my newsletter on our website where I send out special stories from France, announcements, discoveries, sneak peeks, exclusive releases and special promotions!
