Florence Marie, La Forge / The Forge

all images courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, from her website

Honfleur is a commune in France with over 6,700 inhabitants (January 2021), located on the south side of the river Seine where it flows into the Channel. 

Situated in the middle of a block of houses in the old city center, accessible via a side street through a gate in the rue de la Foulerie, there is a building that once housed a forge, a building whose interior and exterior these days have been transformed into an art environment.

The image above shows, seen from the side of the decorated garden, the entrance gate at the end of the side street.

Life and works

This art environment is an impressive creation by Florence Marie, who was born on April 17, 1946 in Le Havre, a commune also located at the mouth of the Seine, but then on the north side, diagonally opposite Honfleur.

At a young age Florence loved reading literature and after her school years in Le Havre, she went to Paris to study philosophy and theatre.

She was active in writing and painting and had a house with a small studio on the Place Saint-Georges in Montmartre.

In 1994, in her late 40s, she moved to Honfleur, where she had found new accommodation in the former forge building which, in addition to a large outdoor space, included a 400 m2 workshop and a house with several floors.

Here Florence Marie would realise her major project, in which, after renovating a messy wall in the outside space into a large fresco, she added all kinds of colourful creations to the exterior, as well as to the walls of the rooms of the residential building.

The images above and around give an impression of the various creations

.

Florence Marie, who did not have an art education, does not consider herself an art brut artist too.

She prefers to see herself as an adventurer, but an adventurer who has the books of writers such as Novalis, Virginia Woolf and Flaubert in her luggage, an adventurer who loves kings and queens, angels and symbols.

The decorations she made are certainly not small-scale, on the contrary, the creations that adorn the walls are often man-sized.

In the 2000 m² space outside there are even very large creations, mostly made of recycled material, such as the depiction of an angel of the apocalypse, provided with silver wings, announcing to a black Virgin the birth of a star child. 

And there is also a life-size giraffe hanging from the roof on a chimney, partly replacing it.

The interior of the house is also filled with a lot of fascinating creative work. The whole is a work of art in itself.

There are all kinds of sculptures, mosaic creations, stained glass cabinets, colorful furniture, painted carpets......

In one of the relatively spacious rooms inside, various events are organized nowadays, where music is alternated with dance, storytelling and the like. These are announced on Florence Marie's Facebook page.

An association Les Amis de la Forge has also been founded, which develops all kinds of activities to support and further develop Florence Marie's project.

Documentation

* Facebook

* Article on the website of the Honfleur tourist office

* Article by Marie Gratepanche on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Article on the website of  the Agnes Szaboova gallery

Florence Marie

La forge

25 rue de la Foulerie,

14600 Honfleur, dept Calvados, region Normandie, France

visitors  welcome on appointment

Google Streetview  access to the side street, which leads to the entrance of the garden