Maeli’s work interweaves surreal-tinged portraits—vessels for hidden emotions—with self-representation and the shaping of our own images. Her paintings invite an intimate encounter with another’s gaze and bring forth a wide range of emotions, from tenderness and serenity to more ambiguous, sometimes unsettling feelings.
Her contemporary use of traditional watercolor on paper brings material and time into dialogue. At times a surface for a fleeting sketch or spontaneous notes, at others the foundation for carefully developed works, the sheet suggests a space of freedom. Watercolor paper carries the legacy of cotton and the seasons, and of the water that transforms it and makes it come alive. Watercolor allows almost no corrections; each gesture is immediate. By working in watercolor, Maeli offers collectors the unvarnished expression of the very first moment of creation, in works where the authenticity of the mark takes precedence and the unpredictable is made sublime.
Maeli (Sarah-Maeli Tedo) is an emerging French-Cameroonian painter based in Toulouse, France. After a childhood spent between France and several African countries, following her father's work for NGOs, Maeli earned a Master's degree in Contemporary Art and New Media from Université Paris VIII in 2017. She now pursues her watercolour practice, translating the volatile instant of the digital into material, contemplative works that reflect our contemporary cultural conversations.