Marie Puybaraud creates serene, peaceful and caring sculptures.
“Drawing on a slow, deeply intuitive practice rooted in material curiosity and a lifelong habit of upcycling, Marie Puybarud’s sculptures sit delicately between abstraction and figuration, serenity and strength. Shaped from blocks of black clay, her elongated, meditative figures recall ancient orants and idols, evoking ritual, prayer, and quiet contemplation. Waxed and hand-polished, each figure becomes part of a harmonised yet distinct gathering – serene, grounded, and quietly alive.” Luca Curco, Curator BORDERS Art Fair 2025
Creativity has always been part of Marie’s universe… Growing up with her large family in the countryside of the Dordogne in France, Marie was immersed in mechanic and metal work, recycling material, for the pleasure of repurposing and upcycling objects and products.
Marie’s sculptures exist between abstraction and figurative, between the shape and expressivity of the clay, between the roughness of the wood and
worn out cubes of our 70s, with vibrant clay slip coating between patina and intense colors.
HER PASSION FOR CERAMIC…
It started in 2002 in Bristol, UK where she followed a training course over seven years in ceramic and raku firing with the potter Bill Moore. Since 2009 she refines her modeling skills with the ceramists Géraldine Pollet and Nadège Delaruelle in Paris, France. Even though Marie has no traditional training in art and design, she has always created, painted, sewn, glued and upcycled recovered objects and material.
HER MEDIUM…
Clay is an inexhaustible way to express herself… Over the last 15 years, she refined her artistic work around creating expressive figures. Full-length characters,
mystical, understated and enigmatic, inspired by figures of orants and idoles, with joint hands and outstretched arms, in the posture of prayers, meditation and contemplation.
HER SCULPTURES…
Realised in blocks of black clay, she shapes her sculptures by hitting and punching the clay. She finishes her sculptures using ceramic engobe colored with atomised clay powders and oxides, creating detailed and textured surfaces. Vibrant colors and patinas of the sculptures is what she is searching for. To provide a satin finish, her sculptures are waxed and polished with a brush.
Instagram: @marie.puybaraud
