Quotes from Virginie have been translated from French and condensed for clarity.
For French artist Virginie Hucher, creating is an act of immersion. “It all begins with enveloping my body in the natural landscape. As I walk, I gather branches, fragments of rock, seashells – tools for the work at hand.” Working across painting, sculpture, drawing and performance, Virginie nurtures a contemplative relationship with the world. By translating experiences of the seasons and environmental elements onto paper and into movement, she aims to capture it “without stripping away its unique, primal essence.”
Virginie first expressed herself artistically through dance, learning from her mother, who worked as a choreographer in Paris. Dance became the foundation of her creative process at an early age, and it continues to influence her work. “Dance lives on not only in my performances but also in my everyday life. I carry movement, rhythm and physicality directly into my paintings and sculptures.”
She transitioned into material works after training under painter and sculptor Michel Guéry at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, and in the studios of sculptor Bruno Lebel in the Hauts-de-France Region. Both of these artists left a significant and lasting impression on her oeuvre, which has adopted a distinctive quality over time.
Virginie’s signature paintings are large-scale and commanding; simple backgrounds in meditative tones allow the central subjects – blocky, abstracted forms with curved edges – to dominate. These intuitively hewn shapes reference human gestures and motifs lifted from nature, reflecting themes of interconnectedness and holistic experience.
The Totem Print featured across our Autumn Winter 2026 collection, Marking the Turn, was created using Virginie’s original artwork, Les Arches Brunes. The oil painting is part of a series titled Arches, which she has been working on since 2021. “The series approaches the arch as a beginning – a symbolic ritual marking the solid foundation of everything,” Virginie explains. “It represents a cosmic grounding that enables profound self-expression, directed outward toward others and the world.”
A spiritual outlook is central to Virginie’s artistic practice. She regards her works as talismans: a way of “paying homage to the living” while holding positive, protective energy. Through movement, colour and light, her art seeks to evoke a sense of healing and spiritual energy.
This philosophy is rooted in an active engagement with the rhythms of the earth, sky, moon and sun. Virginie spends long days by the sea in Somme, France, before returning to her village studio, situated on the edge of a forest and beside a fourteenth-century church. From her desk, she has an unobstructed view of the church, while the main studio looks out onto her verdant woodland. “It is a sacred structure that commands silence – it allows the world to come to me.”
Virginie designed and built the studio herself, believing that she alone could fully understand the importance of such a space. “The decision to construct my creative sanctuary with my own hands was a natural one,” she explains. “It was about seeking the right space and selecting noble, natural materials.” She oriented the studio towards the north, allowing it to be filled with “a constant, uniform, and pure light.” It is an environment intended not simply for making art, but for observing and connecting with the world around her.
“I listen to the colours of the sky and earth, the song of the waves and the wind,” she reflects. “Then, silence takes shape. It is within this inner stillness that the dance begins.”
Discover more of Virginie Hucher’s work at www.virginiehucher.com and @virginie_hucher.
Shop our Selma Totem Print Cotton Shirt Dress, Large Totem Print Poplin Dress, Totem Print Cotton Bandana, and Totem Print Cotton Poplin Shirt.
Words by Bébhinn Campbell.
Photography by Virginie Hucher and David Vanhaverbeke.
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