Zoé Bayard

 

Born in Saint-Malo in 1968, Zoé Bayard—known as Zoé B—is a French painter whose artistic journey reveals a deep connection between art, the psyche, and resilience. Now based in Vendée, she has been developing for several years a sensitive, powerful, and singular artistic path. As a child, she would draw for hours, filling entire drawers with sketches she guarded like treasures. As a teenager, she discovered watercolor, which would become the foundation of her intimate expression.

In 1995, a personal upheaval marked a turning point in her life. Art then became far more than a pastime: it became a refuge, a vital necessity—“her first therapy.” In parallel, Zoé B developed a passion for psychology and pursued studies in the field. She became a psychoanalyst in Rêve Éveillé Libre, a method of inner exploration through a modified state of consciousness. For more than ten years, she guided her patients along this symbolic path while continuing her own exploration of line, color, and the invisible.

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Her work was presented in Monaco in a group exhibition organized by Art Collect®, marking a new step in recognition for the artist.

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In 2005, she discovered calligraphy under the guidance of master Frank Lalou. This demanding work—where gesture and intention must align—would profoundly nourish her pictorial practice. Patience, precision, the verticality of the line… all these elements would later reappear in her paintings. In 2018, she decided to leave psychoanalysis behind to devote herself fully to her art. Self-taught, she quickly began exhibiting in salons, galleries, and artistic events. Distinctions soon followed: the Public Prize and 2nd Jury Prize in Danvix (2018), First Painting Prize at Melusin’art (2020), Excellence Prize in La Rochelle… culminating in the “Coup de cœur” from Hervé Bastien, director of the Castel Marie-Louise in La Baule, in 2022.

Zoé B’s creative process is twofold. She begins with a meticulous, figurative, almost meditative approach. She enters into a form of communion with her subject—often a female figure. “A dialogue is created,” she says. Then comes the moment of release. The painting becomes movement, emotion, urgency. Through the technique of dripping, she projects paint onto the canvas, layering textures and sensations. The Infinitif series reveals raw, primal women, captured in the depth of their inner strength. By contrast, Les Précieuses embody regained peace, harmony after the storm.

For Zoé B, the artist and the therapist are one and the same. Each painting is at once a mirror, an outlet, and an imprint of the soul. Her work speaks to the intimate, touches the unconscious, and releases what could not be expressed by any other means than painting. From wound to light, from shadow to emergence, her gesture is that of a woman who has chosen to fully inhabit her art — so she may invite each viewer to encounter their own.