Mathilde AT: life deserves to be seen in color

There are works of art that are hung on walls, others that are displayed in galleries. And then there are those that brave the rain, cross landscapes, and end up with a few thousand kilometres on the odometer. At 32, Mathilde AT, a painter based in La Rochelle, brought colour to a wooden bicycle from Ateliers Gonnel before sending it out on the road with Émeline Parizel. But behind this unique collaboration lies a deeper story: that of a woman who moved from filmmaking to painting, and who seeks less to replicate the world than to teach us how to look at it differently. An interview with an artist for whom colour is not merely an aesthetic, but a true philosophy of life.

By Jeff Tatard – Photos: © Les Ateliers Gonnel

At first, we simply wanted to understand the story behind a bicycle. But behind the wood and the colours, we discovered that of an artist. Behind the material, an intention. Behind the colours, a sensitivity. Behind the creation, a person.

Following our Bike Check #009 dedicated to Émeline Parizel, we wanted to meet Mathilde AT, the woman who transformed this Embrun into a work of art. Not to recount the bike’s story a second time, but to understand the woman who gave it an identity.

From documentaries to painting, always that urge to tell stories

Today, Mathilde AT is a painter. She is 32 years old, lives in La Rochelle, and develops a world where colour plays an essential role. Yet, her journey did not begin in a painting studio. Her first passion was cinema. More specifically, auteur documentary filmmaking—the kind that does not necessarily aim for the spectacular, but takes the time to focus on people, their stories, and what makes them unique. A way of looking at the world that probably explains a great deal about her current work.

“I come from an audiovisual background, I studied at a film school and was passionate about auteur documentaries. I loved portrait documentaries, which told the story of a person’s life by following them in their daily routine.” This confession particularly caught our attention. Because even before seeking to paint faces, Mathilde already wanted to tell what lay hidden behind them. She loved following people, observing their habits, understanding their day-to-day lives. In other words, she was less interested in a person’s appearance than in what could tell their story. And we immediately found a certain kinship with our approach to cycling at 3bikes. Behind a frame, a build, or a brand, what often interests us most remains the person who gives it meaning.

Mathilde therefore worked for several years in the audiovisual industry while keeping painting as a parallel activity. At first, it coexisted with her job. Then it gradually took up more space. Until it became her primary means of expression. She does not describe this transition as a dramatic break or a sudden revelation, but rather as a natural evolution. “I worked in that field for several years while painting on the side, then that part took up more and more space. It is through this art that I now express myself.”

Ultimately, she perhaps never truly stopped telling stories. She simply changed languages. Yesterday, a camera allowed her to observe lives. Today, her brushes, colours, and compositions take over. And this continuity is evident in her early artistic explorations, which were largely devoted to portraiture.

“At first, it was really portraiture that interested me; I was trying to tell a story through a face. Colour has always been part of my artistic research. I believe life deserves to be seen in colour.” That last sentence might sound like just a lovely turn of phrase. Yet it encapsulates the core of her philosophy. Seeing life in colour does not mean pretending everything is beautiful, but refusing to look at the world in just one way. It means embracing contrasts and nuances, and preserving that ability to marvel at what we thought we already knew.

Long inspired by faces, women, the sea, and encounters, her universe is now evolving towards abstraction. “Now, I’m moving more and more towards the abstract, still colourful of course!” Movement now features more prominently in her research, even if colour remains her primary playground of expression.

Where portraiture tells a story, abstraction lets everyone invent their own. The artwork does not necessarily change, but the way we look at it can. And perhaps Mathilde never truly left documentary filmmaking behind: she simply found another way to tell what words cannot always express.

Colour as a philosophy, but also as a profession

It is easy to imagine an artist’s daily life paced by brushes, canvases, and ideas taking shape at the whim of inspiration. The reality is less romantic. “People might think that an artist’s daily routine is painting all day long, but not at all!”

Accounting, communications, funding applications, orders, liaising with companies… Mathilde lists all the tasks that fill her days without ever appearing in her artwork. “And still a bit of painting and research! The balance is found along the way, it’s not easy.”

This reality will resonate with anyone trying to pursue a passion amidst the constraints of daily life. With one significant nuance: for Mathilde, this passion has also become her profession. She must therefore create, but also manage, communicate, convince, and sell. A delicate balance, as the risk is always the same: spending so much energy keeping the business alive that not enough remains for what gives it meaning.

After long developing her business under the name Atelier Salé, Mathilde now wishes to retain only her artistic signature: Mathilde AT. A way to assert her identity more directly as her projects multiply.

She is notably preparing a new collection for the Cercle de l’Art’s Art Month, an initiative that promotes women artists and makes acquiring their work easier through instalment payments. She also aims to expand her murals, following two projects completed in a social residence and a care home.

“It’s a great way to bring art into environments that aren’t used to hosting it.” Because this is indeed one of the constants of her approach: taking art outside its traditional venues to bring it as close to life as possible. On a wall, in a thoroughfare or, why not, on an object capable of covering thousands of kilometres.

Ateliers Gonnel: when two forms of craftsmanship decide to meet

The idea of painting a bicycle did not originate with this collaboration. It was already in Mathilde’s mind. Her partner works in the cycling industry and, for a long time, she had envisioned what she could create on a frame. “My partner works in the bike industry, so painting on a frame was an idea I had had for a long time. Ateliers Gonnel had already seen my artwork in La Rochelle, and when they contacted me, I was thrilled to be able to bring colour to an idea I had carried in my head for so long!” The match was almost obvious. Based in La Rochelle, Ateliers Gonnel designs frames combining wood and technical fibres, at the crossroads of craftsmanship and engineering. Each piece possesses its own nuances and identity, well before any artistic intervention.

Mathilde therefore had to figure out how to bring her artistic universe to a material that already had something to say. Painting without erasing. Adding without concealing. Creating a dialogue between two crafts rather than overlaying them. “Wood is a living, noble material. My goal was therefore to marry my art with the frame, without hiding it completely. I think it was important to see the blend between the two and let the wood express itself around my colours.” The result hinges precisely on this balance. The wood retains its identity, while the colours offer a new reading of it. The artist’s work does not replace the craftsman’s. It extends it.

Looking at the finished bicycle, one might imagine a spontaneous creation, guided purely by inspiration. Yet, the apparent freedom of this composition relies on thorough preparation.

“I thought about a colour palette beforehand that would be vibrant and luminous while blending well with the wood. Then I made a sketch for the positioning of the colours and shapes.”

In her workshop, her partner set up a stand that allowed her to rotate around the frame. Mathilde was thus able to work on the various surfaces and follow the lines of this unusual canvas. Because unlike a canvas, a bicycle is not viewed only from the front. You have to work with its curves, volumes, and geometry.

An experience that, despite its novelty, presented no particular difficulties. And above all, a creation that was not going to stay still for long.

A work of art that refuses to sit still

Once the bike was finished, its story could very well have ended there. A few beautiful photographs, a showcase in an exhibition space, perhaps an event to celebrate the encounter between craftsmanship and contemporary design. The result would certainly have garnered interest. But Ateliers Gonnel had envisioned something else: making this work of art roll.

The bicycle was to be entrusted to Émeline Parizel, a cyclist passionate about long distances, travel, and adventure. A woman whose riding is driven more by exploration, self-sufficiency, and freedom than by the mere pursuit of performance. A choice that aligns perfectly with the philosophy of this collaboration, as the object was never intended to sit still.

Because a bicycle, unlike a painting, does not necessarily spend its existence sheltered away. It rides in the rain, collects dust, endures road spray, vibrations, and occasionally the minor mishaps that inevitably accompany cycling. It ages at the pace of its use. And when it ends up in the hands of an ultra-distance enthusiast, opportunities to give it a few adventures are never lacking.

For Mathilde, this prospect is not alarming at all. Quite the contrary. “I thought it was great. Works of art are often little treasures that get protected and very rarely move. I think it’s important to take art out of galleries or living rooms. I’m happy to have a work of art that travels and that anyone might cross paths with.”

In the cycling world too, we know the temptation to protect what we find beautiful, sometimes to the point of hesitating to ride it. With this Gonnel, it is the exact opposite: the paint doesn’t forbid the road; it gives it an extra story.

The artwork might now appear around a street corner, on a cycle lane, or at the start of a sporting event. Some will notice it, others will pass by without looking. And Émeline will become, almost without trying, a travelling ambassador for Mathilde’s work. An exhibition that constantly changes scenery, with no admission ticket and no opening hours. Just two wheels to carry the colours.

Yet this freedom raises a more personal question: how do you come to terms with letting go of something into which you have poured a piece of yourself? Mathilde answers with a touch of detachment: “I consider that every piece that leaves my studio no longer belongs to me and creates a new story with its new owners. With this bike, it makes even more sense.”

For Mathilde, a work of art doesn’t necessarily end with the final brushstroke. It continues to live through those who encounter it, and now through Émeline’s kilometres. The artist envisioned its colours. The cyclist will bring it her routes, encounters, and memories.

One creates to express something. The other rides to discover what lies beyond. Two different paths, but the same notion of freedom. We then asked Mathilde how she would react if she saw this bike again in ten years, marked by thousands of kilometres. Would she find it damaged or enriched by its story? “Every mark certainly tells a story…” Up to that point, the answer sounded very philosophical. But Mathilde prefers to stay true to herself. “But I’m a bit finicky with my artwork, so I’d probably still want to touch it up!!” It’s hard not to smile. You can love that an artwork lives its own life without being completely indifferent to its battle scars. And if the Gonnel were to return to La Rochelle one day, it is easy to picture Mathilde hesitating between preserving the travel marks and getting her brushes back out. Life deserves to be seen in colour, certainly. But if the colours can remain pristine, all the better.

Looking at the world with fresh eyes

This collaboration with Ateliers Gonnel is therefore not an isolated chapter in Mathilde’s journey. It extends her desire to bring art to life outside galleries, as close to everyday life as possible. She has already done so with her murals. This time, she does it on a bicycle built to cross landscapes. “I love creating on objects, that’s always been the case, and this project reinforces that feeling!” In one case, art meets people where they live. In the other, it hits the road to go meet them. This freedom is reflected in her artistic evolution. Mathilde is now exploring abstraction, movement, and the possibilities offered by colour, without trying to endlessly replicate what built her identity. When we ask her what message she hopes to convey, her answer reaches far beyond painting.

“Through my art, I want to tell the world that we must live in colour, look at the world around us with fresh eyes, never grow tired of the world’s beauty, always dream, and never be afraid to be different.” It is an invitation to remain curious, to embrace differences, and never to take the world as something definitively known.

In sport too, we readily measure our experiences in kilometres, watts, speed, or rankings. These figures tell of performance, but rarely of everything we actually experienced. They say nothing about the beauty of a landscape, an unexpected encounter, or the simple joy of being outdoors. And sometimes, it is those memories that endure the longest.

Mathilde’s approach aligns with this dimension of cycling. She does not necessarily expect everyone to immediately understand what they are looking at. Above all, she hopes to spark an emotion.

We then asked her a deliberately more philosophical question: is an artwork meant to stand the test of time, or to accompany the lives of those who encounter it? “A work of art is meant to make you feel what you need to feel at any given moment. You can look at the same piece every day and see something different each time.” This answer resonated deeply with us. Because a work of art can remain identical while the way we perceive it evolves. The painting hasn’t changed. We have.

With the Gonnel bicycle, the story goes even further. The work itself will evolve with Émeline’s adventures, the landscapes traversed, and the encounters made. Its creation did not conclude when Mathilde set down her final brushstroke. It now continues on the road. “I hope my works will stand the test of time, but above all, I hope they bring a little bit of happiness to everyone who looks at them.” There are probably more spectacular artistic ambitions. But not necessarily more important ones. Sparking an emotion in someone, however fleeting, is already leaving a mark.

One artwork, three stories, and freedom on the horizon

As we wrapped up this conversation with Mathilde AT, we almost forgot that our curiosity had been sparked by a bicycle. We had thought we were going behind the scenes of a collaboration between an artist and a wooden frame builder. Instead, we met a woman who traded her camera for brushes without ever giving up on storytelling. A creator who lets her artworks take their freedom, even if she might sometimes wish she could wipe away their first scratches.

Her Gonnel embodies this philosophy perfectly: the craftsmen designed its structure, Mathilde brought it colour, and Émeline is now writing its adventures. Three stories brought together around a single bicycle, whose final destination no one yet knows.

As our interview drew to a close, we offered Mathilde the chance to add a question we might have forgotten to ask. She preferred to answer with humour: “Was I freewheeling when I created this bike?” Looking at how thoroughly she prepared her work, the answer is clearly no. But looking at the result, one can easily see that freedom was undeniably there. And that is perhaps Mathilde AT’s finest achievement: reminding us that we don’t need to change the world to start seeing it differently. Sometimes, all it takes is adding a little colour back into it.

=> To discover the craftsmanship of Ateliers Gonnel