On the occasion of the Rendez-Vous aux Jardins 2024, Majorie Desmottes, better known as the Hortésienne, will propose to the public of the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, to experiment the cyanotype process in the manner of the botanist Anna Atkins in the nineteenth century.
Landscape historian Marjorie Desmottes adopted in 2020 the name of the Hortésienne, inspired by the character of Hortésie, the muse of gardens born in 1659 under the pen of Jean de la Fontaine. Passionate about the art of image and photographic development, she found in the Cyanotype process, the way to create a bridge between her sensitivity to botany and photography. Since then, she never stops experimenting with the infinite possibilities offered by this process and she shares the poetry of this technique during workshops or through ready-to-use kits. Thanks to the photographic process of cyanotype and sunlight, the Hortésienne realizes solar impressions to immortalize a nature carefully collected by her care. In this way she captures prints, transparencies and shadows on paper and fabric, in the form of botanical prints or photo prints, all in the characteristic colour of Cyanotype, Prussian Blue…
Workshops not to be missed in order to make by hand its own botanical print with local plants.
Find the Hortésienne in the heart of the abbey for a fun and poetic activity that has all the magic, both for children and adults!