Article : La maison Du Fénua, L’art de vivre en polynésie

Release date: January 2021

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A Globe-trotting Artist

Marine Marcus

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Article by @paulinesillinger

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Lagoon blue, fine and slender curves, art deco style... welcome to the world of Marine Marcus. With her ultramarine eye, the young woman delivers illustrations that wonderfully depict life on the islands, both on land and underwater. 

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Marine Marcus is the story of a Guadeloupe-born illustrator who makes a discreet yet welcome entry into the Polynesian artistic world. Vintage, pastel colors and references that resonate with all lovers of islands and the sea... this is what the young woman offers us through her works that you've probably already come across on social networks.

 

Meet a talented artist.

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Swimming before knowing how to walk Marine was born and grew up in Guadeloupe, an overseas department in the Caribbean Sea. The sea is both her first name and her playground. For the first seventeen years of her life, she lived with her family on a sailboat, and there's no shortage of anecdotes to demonstrate her connection to the ocean. “It seems I was a big baby and I preferred to learn to swim long before I learned to walk”, she tells us in a burst of laughter.

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Nautical activities were an integral part of his youth. At a very young age, she discovered freediving and then underwater hunting. At the age of twelve, she was introduced to scuba diving and developed a great passion for this aquatic sport. The reason for this is that: His favorite place to dive in Guadeloupe is the Cousteau Reserve, a marine reserve comprising 1,000 hectares of exceptional seabed - think shimmering coral, schools of tropical fish as far as the eye can see, turtles, whales and much more.

 

Art at Sea

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When she's not in the water, Marine is usually nose-deep in her artistic creations. Among other things, she draws, paints and makes pottery. Meticulous, she spends hours and hours learning drawing techniques. With a mother who was passionate about painting and a father who was a leather craftsman, the young woman was stimulated by her family environment, which pushed her in this direction.

At school in Guadeloupe, Marine didn't hesitate to enroll in an applied arts baccalaureate to further develop her artistic talents. Once she had passed her baccalaureate, like many of her French counterparts, she left her native island and moved to mainland France to study design

 

(particularly textile design) and marketing. At the end of her five years on the European continent, bitten by the travel bug and in search of new adventures, the young woman set down her bags in Southeast Asia.

 

From Guadeloupe to Hong Kong

And so began Marine's great Hong Kong adventure. China's Eldorado, Hong Kong is teeming with opportunities for French expatriates, especially in the luxury sector. And that's exactly where the young graduate is headed. For eleven years, she put her talents at the service of the biggest luxury brands, first as a freelancer - then as Visual merchandiser and marketing in large groups known worldwide. During this

period, she worked for customers such as Hermès, Delvaux, LVMH, Nespresso and Ferrero.

 

The young woman specializes in visual merchandising, the art of presenting products in a sales area or cultural space (boutiques, stores, galleries, exhibitions, museums, etc.). In 2012 she was recruited by Duty Free Shop (DFS), a subsidiary of the LVMH group dedicated to marketing products in tax-free zones. The sumptuous duty free of the airports of Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York? They're the ones.

For DFS, Marine coordinates an entire team dedicated to creating DFS windows and displays with exceptional looks. Nothing seems to be out of reach, his windows are works of art.

She recounts with emotion one of the projects that still makes her proud today. “For the opening of the DFS in Macau, we created a fifteen-meter-high kinetic statue (which moves with the wind, sun or other elements). Given Macau's Portuguese heritage, we were inspired by the graceful movements of Portuguese dancers, and the statue had to come to life every time a customer entered the boutique. When we set up the room and the doors to the boutique opened for the first time, it was a great moment of happiness".

 

Throughout these years, despite her hectic city life and numerous professional assignments all over Asia, Marine has never lost her link with her first love: the ocean. She continues to dive regularly throughout Asia and even passes her divemaster certification while in Hong Kong.

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The call of the islands

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After a while, Marine was no longer satisfied with her occasional escapades in the great outdoors. She needs to live as close to the latter as possible. In the end, the call of the islands was stronger than all and the young woman requested a permanent relocation to Hawai'i. For three years, she lived on the island of Oahu and managed the visual merchandising branch of DFS's Hawaiian division. Although Marine was already very familiar with Oceania, Hawai'i was her first extended contact with Polynesian culture, and she fell completely in love with it. "It was much more than beautiful scenery. In Hawai'i, I had a human experience that touched me deeply: the fact that people say hello to each other or help each other without even knowing each other, for example. I found that again when I visited French Polynesia a few years later," she explains.

In September 2020, the airport sector is one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, and the DFS Group is suffering as a result. The group's Hawaiian division closes its doors, and it's time for Marine to set sail for new horizons.

 

 

Towards art illustration

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Her new adventure was born of her passion for drawing, the ocean and travel (this word is even tattooed in Morse code on her wrist). It's also an opportunity for her to indulge in a more flexible lifestyle. She started out as a freelance illustrator. She begins by identifying non-negotiable elements for her brand.

For her prints, for example, she chooses vegetable-based inks and art paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Next comes the question of style. From September 2020 to March 2021, she made a first attempt with black-and-white illustrations. Despite the obvious quality of her work, the project didn't take off as expected. No matter! Far from being discouraged, the young woman reworked the style of her illustrations, adding color in particular. Lagoon blue is the predominant color. This is followed by a soft, peachy orange and white to brighten things up. A touch of navy blue adds depth, and a few touches of yellow and raspberry red, used sparingly, add pep to her work.

The young woman also decided to highlight subjects that speak to her: diving and freediving, of course, but also fishing, surfing, paddleboarding, windsurfing, yoga, dance, meditation, and lots of traveling.

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The main protagonist, featured in many of the illustrations, is a slender young woman who is definitely an islander. She can be seen on a beach in Mo'orea, watching the kitesurfers sawing up the lagoon, twirling between two manta rays in Maupiti, or dancing on top of an enchanting mountain in Tahiti. Whether representing Polynesia or other destinations, the young woman knows how to capture and convey the essence of the places she draws.

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While the Polynesian touch is clearly present, Marine transports us into her very own universe, where the underwater depths seem to be her comfort zone. The diversity of marine species and landscapes she showcases demonstrates the finesse of her view of the world.

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Quite satisfied with this new style, it was in March 2021 that the artist made her first publication on Instagram with an illustration of Bora Bora featuring a few bungalows on the water and Mount Otemanu in the background. This second test was to find out whether goodies designed in the same style for an Australian souvenir store would appeal to the general public or not. Internet users immediately loved it. "I've received some touching testimonies: 'you've brightened my day', things like that. I noticed the emotion in people's eyes when they saw my work. I really enjoy this human contact in my job as an illustrator," Marine explains.

 

For her and for us, it's the start of a beautiful story...

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