At Pascal Lainé’s smash opening for the painter Michèle Belaiche Wednesday evening, some guests offered the ironic reflection that many dinner reservations might be shelved owing to the steady flow of scrumptious amuse gueules – salmon, foie gras, tuna, ratatouille, prawns and sandwich slices – paraded into the gallery from across-the-street neighbor Café de Veranda, what the French refer to as a “vernissage dinatoire” (a drinks party with plenty of eats).
Before taking up painting, Michèle Belaiche immersed herself in the haut monde of interior design, first working with the international antiques dealer Didier Aaaron (Paris, New York and London), and then assisting Didier Grange, the French interior designer whose celeb clients included Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, Isabelle Adjani, Caroline of Monaco, François Pinault, and in New York, Paloma Picasso, and the Mark Hotel, whose Jacques Grange-designed bar touts its lychee raspberry Bellini, and the Barbizon Hotel.
Upon relocating to Provence, Michèle Belaiche took up painting and the decorative engraving technique guilloché with it prominent intricate repetitive patterns (the term takes its name from a French engineer “Guillot.”) During her initiation to guilloché, Michèle Belaiche experimented with a multitude of tightly-configured small black lines giving off subtle contrasts of shadow and light. Her technique evolved from abstract compositions of brightly-colored horizontal lines to her current day creations of entwined rectangles and cubes of black and colored tones, a balance that renders a richness to her compositions. The exhibit of her mesmerizing paintings runs until Aug. 9.
Pascal Lainé (white) chats with Robert Vettoretti, jury president of the Press Club of Avignon "OFF" who presented the Club's "Coups de coeur" to three plays at the Maison des Vins Tues. eve.
Vincent Boeuf (lt), property agent to the smart set and the most-quoted authority on Luberon high society, standing in front of the mayor of Ménerbes, the ebullient Yves Rousset-Rouard, former producer of “Emmanuelle,” wine grower, and vigorous promoter of the village.
Sally, a fashion-forward modern American woman and art collector, splashed with vivid colors that might have been ripped off of a museum wall
Fashionista trivia: How many pairs of laceless Chucks does Michel Leeb own? The natty French comedian and theater actor sported a dark navy pair at the opening. At last sighting, he donned beige Chucks.
The toujours elegant Laura Skoler, art patron and vice president of the New Museum in New York, a longtime Luberon summer faithful, and Paris-based art collector Frédéric de Goldschmidt absorb the scene.
Basics:
The exhibition of Michèle Belaiche’s paintings runs until August 9 at the Galerie Pascal Lainé, Rue Sainte Barbe in the center of Ménerbes.
Open from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.Tel: 04-90-72-48-30, Website
Note: Upcoming exhibition at Galerie Pascal Lainé is “Un p’tit safari,” works of Michel Loeb, August 11 to September 4.
