As 2025 begins to come to a close and the sound of Christmas approaches with its familiar jingle, many artists may be winding down for some quiet seasonal respite. This however, isn’t the case for French artist Stéphane Pannetier Le Hénaff. Instead, the painter has as plethora of exciting projects lined up as he turns his creative juices up a notch including exhibitions, artbooks and even a calendar.
In this exclusive interview and exhibition preview, I catch up with Stéphane to learn more about him ending the year with a creative bang as he features in ‘Requiem’, a tribute and celebration of Mozart and his legacy, and ‘Des Artistes a Fleury – Passages’ a short but sweet exhibition held in his home city. He also reveals his time working on his first collection of artbooks, Leporello “Wild Flowers” – Fleurs Sauvages Volume 1 and Codex Intégrale, his process designing his first calendar, and what he has in store for us in 2026.
‘Des Artistes a Fleury – Passages’
Exhibition Dates: 5 December – 7 December 2025
Artworks featured: “Fantasia”, “Regards”, “La danseuse”, and “Reflexions”
Salle Galilée
10 Rue Serge Rouzière, 14123 Fleury-sur-Orne, France
For more information on the exhibition please visit Fleury-sur-Orne’s website.
‘Requiem’
Exhibition Dates: 5 December – 31 December 2025
Artworks featured: “Hayadée”, “Charme”, “L’espérance (Hope)”, and “Pandora à la bougie”
Toolip Art Gallery
Ballgasse 6, 2A, 1010 Vienna Austria
For more information on the exhibition please visit Toolip Art Gallery’s website or email them at info@toolipartgallery.com.
Interview with Stéphane Pannetier Le Hénaff
‘Requiem’ is an exhibition commemorating Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the cultural mark he left on us all. Can you tell me a bit about what Mozart means to you as an artist and how he has influenced your contribution to this exhibition?
For me, Mozart represents a lone musical revolution. It is a breath from elsewhere, where even the silence following on from his musical legacy still belongs to him. He is a truly indescribable musical virtuoso.
I think that my contributions to the show, which include, “Hayadée” and “Charme” from my Wild Flowers collection and “Pandora à la bougie”, will honour two of the giants within the painting world; Georges de la Tour and Leonardo da Vinci. These pieces finds their place here because of the almost mystical atmosphere that they have within.
I think my other piece “L’espérance (Hope)” also has its place as it attempts to invoke and portray an old fashioned memory with the spherical perspective in the piece. It holds a transient tone which is innovative and feels like part of the spirit of Mozart’s era. With this in mind, I believe that the ‘Requiem’ exhibition will present many works, alongside my own, that feel most inclined to commemorate Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the cultural mark he has left of all of us.
You’re also participating in ‘Des Artistes a Fleury – Passages’, where you’ll be sharing your latest “Wild Flowers” piece “Pas-sage”. How are you feeling about this show given the fact that it is being held in your home city? Are you excited? Or perhaps nervous?
I always remain nervous before any opening of a show as we never know it advance how these shows will play out in real time. That being said, I can’t wait to be there to share my work with the public. I’ll be sharing the latest addition to my “Wild Flowers” drawing series which I have titled “Pas sage(s)”, which in French is a play on words between going through a passage and not being wise enough to go through it which fits rather well with the shows theme.
You’ve recently been working on some artbooks including Leporello “Wild Flowers” – Fleurs Sauvages Volume 1 and Codex Intégrale which are now available to purchase on your website. Can you tell me a bit about why you’ve decided to start making your own artbooks? Are you hoping to make your work more accessible to your audience?
Indeed I am. My first artbook Leporello is an accordion book composed of eight of my “Wild Flower” pieces so it is smaller and therefore easily transportable. My other book, Codex Intégrale is a larger art book consisting of seventy two pages that mixes text with my artwork, allowing for people to discover my work in new ways. Both of these books are available in French and English.
I think that the magic of paintings is that they are unique during an exhibition, similarly to how the senses capture listening to music in a concert hall. However, these art forms can be captured and shared through reproductions such as art books or listening to music on our phones. Whilst the reproductions might not be exactly the same as the originals, the essence of the piece still remains.
I think that the pictorial diffusion of visual representations of an artwork when produced in a book has the meaning and ability to enchant those that are curious enough to seek it out. What matters most to me is the art of painting itself, therefore I’d like to share and archive my creations for the long term, whilst also enchanting the public with my work. In the future I’m open to collaborating on a larger scale with art book publishers.
Can you tell me about the process of putting “Wild Flowers” – Fleurs Sauvages Volume 1 and Codex Intégrale together and some of the challenges you faced whilst working on them?
The first step was to get in contact with artisan photographer Philippe Delval based in Caen to start a year long preparation to have all of my artworks photographed. This was the followed by finding what form I wanted the books to take, for example, I said to myself beforehand, why not try to form a book for Leporello myself before finding an a high quality printer so I could refine which drawings I wanted to include.
The third step was to give a practically scenographic rhythm to both of the books before moving on to the difficult part of proofreading, editing, creating a dynamic layout and refining the choices of text that would accompany the artworks, especially in Codex Intégrale.
The final step was to do the last round of proofreading and do a print run test to check the quality until the book finally sings. On December 10, Codex Intégrale will be available to purchase on my website in a limited version that has a gold title cover.
Do you collect artbooks from other artists? If so, do you have any favourites in your collection?
I do indeed collect other artbooks. Some of the stand out ones from my collection include my Hazan edition of “Famous Landscapes of the sixty provinces of Japan” by Hiroshige and “The Complete Drawings of Leonardo De Vinci” by Taschen. I also have the technical book “A la recherche des grands peintres” by Jacques Maroger. Whenever I conduct research for mediums, or for compositions, I make sure to reread each of the books in my collection according to the needs of the work that’s being composed whether it be the relationship between colours or studying different styles and techniques.
To be honest, in the future I would very much like to collect artbooks by painters such as Santi Pina, Roberto Ferri, Odd Nerdrum whose pictorial work I have a particular love for.
Alongside your artbooks, you have also been working on your first ever calendar for 2026. How have you found putting a calendar together? Was it challenging pairing your artworks with different months of the year and the seasons they represent?
Indeed I have. I went through a series of tests to find the best composition for this first calander of mine which is limited to thirty copies on a deep matte paper, printed by Whitewall. Originally, I started with “L’espérance (Hope)” for January, and December would end with Opus 2. In my first test run, I opted for more reproductions of my oil paintings over my drawings but I found during this process that some works seemed more austere than others. I finally settled on a mixture of drawings and paintings, however I opted to have more of my “Wild Flowers” drawings than paintings to make this first calendar feel more free flowing in its reading and interpretation.
Do you have plans to further diversify your portfolio of products in 2026? If so, what other products would you like to release?
I do indeed. I’d love to release products such as illustrated notebooks, bookmarks, and postcards. I’m also working on a new project in collaboration with local bookbinding craftsman and art photographer Philippe Delval which is currently in the design phase and will release in Summer 2026. I’d also love to release a new Codex book too if I’m able to!
I also remain open to collaboration in publishing too as I want to remain open to new ideas and opportunities, and to potentially discover new worlds that are here and elsewhere.
