About Frédéric Lère

After Beaux-Arts studies, stone carving and comics in France, Frédéric Lère arrived in New York in 1984 to specialize in mural painting. In Spring 2010, he moved to a new studio in the Fashion District in Manhattan to work on oil paintings or 3D cutouts based on watercolors sketched during his trips in the US or abroad or in the fancy of his circus memories.

La Belle Pauline at the Garden

Message 3, copy 4 of 10
Bronx, New York

Winter 2013-14 must have been real tough on New Yorkers and Pauline. And Spring is gorgeous:

carla-4

Her Freevolous Messenger added this comment:

“Here is La Belle Pauline to one of my favorite places, the New York Botanical Garden in Spring.  Carla”

All of the 10 copies of “La Belle Pauline” have found their first Freevolous Messengers. Carla took Pauline to Brooklyn and then to the Bronx to send this first message.  A few Messengers did not send any message yet and their eventual second Freevolous Messengers have not sent any…

To know more about La Belle Pauline, please visit  Messages in a Bottle and the FKL Show.

 

Flowering La Belle Pauline

Message 3, copy 9 of 10
Old Lyme, Connecticut

La Belle Pauline is assured of a wonderful journey thanks to Constanza, her ninth Freevolous Messenger. As soon as she arrived in her new home, she send me this photo and comment:

Flowering-la-belle-pauline

La Belle Pauline stays wisely indoor

“(La Belle Pauline) Has arrived ! She wanted you to know that she loves Old Lyme. I think her next destination will be Berkeley, California although my three dinner guests last evening were all vying for the opportunity to be the next Freevolous Messenger.
Kisses, Constanza”

Sunday May 11, 2014
Old Lyme, Connecticut

A new photo of La Belle Pauline arrived from Old Lyme, with the following comment:

la-belle-pauline-92

“(La Belle Pauline) loves that there are decadent flowers in Old Lyme that match her dress. She told me that she would like to stay here a while before moving on to the next Freevolous Messenger. She wants to touch up her makeup in my ridiculously huge bathroom and explore the gardens. She is very happy here!!!
Kisses, Constanza”

As long as she is sending us news, we are happy to see her happy!

May 13, 2014
Old Lyme, Connecticut

Pauline is definitely attracted by flowers:

Pauline in Old Lyme

The photo came with that comment:
“Aha, you did not tell me that La Belle Pauline is a painter. She has totally taken over my studio! Here she is with her latest work in progress.”

The 10 copies of “La Belle Pauline” have found their first Freevolous Messengers. A few did not yet send any message. Their eventual second Freevolous Messengers have not send any message yet…

To know more about her, please visit  Messages in a Bottle and the FKL Show.

La Belle Pauline at the Office

Message 3, copy 5 of 10
Manhattan, NY

So close to the phone, is the 5th copy of Message 3 sending a message? Does La Belle Pauline need to leave the Office, being in the wonderful company of flowers?

Spring is in the air, at the office

Spring is in the air, at the office

She left my studio on West 39th street, January 30, to send this picture of her from an office on East 42nd Street, April 24…

From the same office came that other photo of La Belle Pauline. We are reassured, she is out of the fish tank!
Pauline-in-the-tank

!0 copies in paper have been made from La Belle Pauline. To know more about her, please visit  Messages in a Bottle and the FKL Show.

“Pen Gwen”

Jean Le Doussal
Saint-Étienne de Chigny, France

Along the Loire River, a new sentinel guards the village entrance since 2013. It is “Pen Gwen”, by Jean Le Doussal. It sits on the “levée”, facing the river, remote and mysterious. On its back, the village and its new housing slowly expanding…

le-doussal

 
Jean Le Doussal taught me sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts of Tours in the seventies. I did not see him since then. He was so quiet and discreet, no trace of him could be found on the internet. I presume he died. The only information found is on the little wall, right of the sculpture, a stone that reads:

Jean
Le Doussal
“Pen Gwen”
1987
Mauves s/ Loire

To know more about “Pen Gwen”, please visit Jean-François Cochard blog, A-GENIUS LOCI

La Belle Pauline Across the River

Message 3, copy 2 of 10
Jersey City, NJ

The second copy of Message 3 in a Bottle was given to Ronni Anderson, from Mayson Gallery, the day after the opening of the Frivolous King Lère show with the Big Apple Circus and Clown Care, February 29. In a little bit more of two month, it crossed the Hudson River!
La Belle Pauline looking at the new World Trade Center from Jersey City

La Belle Pauline looking at the new World Trade Center from Jersey City

Ronni’s comment:
“Sorry about delay – I’ve attached a photo of La Belle Pauline in Jersey City with a back drop of NYC and the Freedom Tower!
I will be sending her to Ashland, Oregon to a children’s class room where they will take good care of her and send in the pictures to you.  Hope all is well!!”
!0 copies in paper have been made from La Belle Pauline. To know more about her, please visit  Messages in a Bottle and the FKL Show. To know  more about Clown Care, please visit the Mayson Gallery.

La Belle Pauline at Zavatta’s

Message 3 , copy 7 of 10
Cirque Zavatta, France

La Belle Pauline went back to France. Orléans. Was the picture snapped there? The message doesn’t say. We just know its sending date, March18, 2014, and that it has been shot at the entrance of Cirque Zavatta.
Belle and mysterious…

Pauline-at-Zavatta's

Florence, her Freevolous Messenger, send also this comment:

La Belle Pauline a été attirée comme un aimant par le chapiteau rouge et blanc.
(La Belle Pauline has been attracted like a magnet by the big top, white and scarlet.) 

More on Messages in a Bottle and in FKL Show 

La Belle Pauline at Peace

Message 3, copy 3 of 10
Kingston, Jamaica

Pierre took La Belle Pauline to Jamaica.
And made her discover her past, bringing us along on her journey…

pierre-noel

 

All these years, Pauline had fond memories of the tours in Jamaica. Kingston, where she had made good friends from day one, had become a second home. Now, she was back, after 20 years of crisscrossing the rest of the world; her agility and her resilience were not the same as before, but she was happy to find a city that seemed less tense and more at peace with itself. Even if downtown Kingston, where the circus had had its tent always, was still very much a eyesore in need of a serious uplifting. She thought she would try somehow to not let loose of the city again, although she knows the globe is big and there are other places she also craves for.

More on Messages in a Bottle and in FKL Show 

La Belle Pauline in ballet class

Message 3, copy AP 2 of 10
New York, NY

In display at the opening of the Frivolous King Lère Show with the Big Apple Circus at Mayson Gallery. On Wednesday, January 22, it took off right away in the hands of Stuart:

AP 2 of 10 ballet

 

Yes, AP 2 of 10 with the letter in the envelope is on its way to what I hope will be a fascinating journey. The first stop is my daughter’s ballet class (photo attached)
Ballet is very much like the circus, so this first stop is most appropriate. It includes amazing moves that a body can only do with lots of practice and a passion for the genre. Like the circus, music is a corner stone, and the art includes beautiful scenery, intense drama, fascinating leaps and twirls full of precision and grace, dangerous tricks that causes audiences to hold their breath, deep emotion that is expressed and felt by everyone involved, and a way of life that is wonderfully alternative and altruistic (i.e. not an office.) From here, we’ll see how many lifestyles will be in common with these topics. It’s sure to be a journey that will be a true and wonderful experience.
I will take care to ensure that this paper bottle is well treated and passed on to only those who will admire and appreciate its beauty and provide a fascinating journey for which it deserves.
Stuart Krasna

Bon Voyage, La Belle Pauline

Message 3 in a paper bottle
Miami Beach, FL

Messages 1 and 2 got lost, the first in Colorado, the second in Europe. Was their make too precious, painted in oil on cut out wood? 10 numbered paper copies of Message 3 have been mounted in Miami Beach.

La Belle Pauline sits next to a life guard post in South Beach

La Belle Pauline sits next to a life guard post in South Beach

The original will be shown at Mayson Gallery, 254 Broome St. New York, NY, from January 22 to February 5 on the occasion of a benefit for the Big Apple Circus,  “Clown Care”. Along with 40 paintings and objects from the Frivolous King Lère Show.
Each one of the 10 numbered copies of “La Belle Pauline” will be mailed upon request to anyone willing to be its “Messenger”, and to follow this message, written on the back of the bottle:

Become "La Belle Pauline" Freevolous Messenger

Become “La Belle Pauline” Freevolous Messenger

More on Messages in a Bottle and in FKL Show 

South Manhattan

Springhill Suites
25 West 37th Street, New York

This hotel offered me to paint on June 18 views from their roof and show more of my work in their lobby. Tough, it was raining that day.

Looking south, down to the new World Trade Tower

Looking south, down to the new One World Trade Center

Rusted by a 12 year hiatus in practice of cityscape painting, I went up the two preceding weekends on the roof of the Glass Farmhouse Building to paint radically changed views of Midtown. So many new buildings and such a warmer palette! Check it out on NY City Landscapes.