What Claire Vassort loves about hang gliding is also what is reflected in the themes of her silk painting. She says, “What drew me to flying is what you see: the aesthetics. And the peace.” Her silk painting has nature themes of sky, earth, sun, moon and trees always interconnected.

Vassort’s studio is in the attic of her house where she is currently working on a lantern, a three-dimensional piece which will be lit with a string of white lights when it is finished.

She says that silk painting is very dynamic. It’s a metaphor for life. You have to adjust some, but it’s good to have a plan. Vassort also points out that, unlike other mediums, you cannot go back and change.”

Vassort buys white silk and stretches it on a frame so that you pretty much create a canvas. She uses a water-resistant method, which is a mix of watercolor technique and a resist technique. She draws the lines with gutta, a glue, to create a design.

According to Vassort, part of the process is learning how the ink moves on the canvas.

The inks used in silk painting are water-based, and Vassort sets the colors in a steaming process using a pressure cooker. That makes the silks washable.

Vassort is a native of the Loire Valley in France. At age 13, she saw the Hang Gliding World Championships and was drawn to the heights. She began with mountaineering and moved on to hang gliding.

Silk painting also entered Vassort’s life when she was in her teens. He mother took silk painting in an arts and crafts class and gave Vassort the frame and inks. Vassort painted on silk for five years, but then the hang gliding took over.

Vassort took a sabbatical from teaching grade school in Normandy, France to pursue hang gliding in North America in 1988. “I just loved the flying. It was like a drug. It was wonderful to detach yourself.” The sabbatical turned into a permanent move.

She went to Quebec first but ended up in State College, Penn., because of hang gliding in the Appalachian range there. After a divorce, Vassort came to this area because she had flown here in a competition.

Formerly a pilot on the U.S. Hang Gliding Team, Vassort’s personal best is a 127-mile flight. The World Record is 400 miles. According to Vassort, a pilot on these distance flights stays in radio and cell phone contact throughout the flight.

When Vassort moved to Lookout Mountain, she says she once again had time for silk painting but had to find her technique again. Her subject matter has always been natural elements and metaphors.

Vassort has had a variety of jobs while living in Northwest Georgia. To have time to concentrate on silk painting, she worked as a waitress and a surveyor’s assistant. She now waitresses and is a French tutor, meeting two or three times a month with two families whose children attended French schools. She also gives silk painting lessons.

Vassort’s medium of silk painting reflects her love of flying. Both require a plan that must be adjusted to circumstance, and both are imbued with a love of nature. Vassort’s silk paintings move softly with the breeze, much like a hang glider drifting above a mountain brow.

For more information, Vassort’s web site is http://www.clairevassort.com. A variety of her work can be found in the Foothills Gallery in LaFayette.

The gallery is on U.S. 27 at 103 Main Street across from the Marsh House, and it is open Thursday – Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 1-5. The web site is foothillsgallery.org/zenphoto2. Join the Facebook group: Northwest Georgia Arts Guild--Foothills Art Gallery.

Krista Seckinger is the vice-chairperson at the Northwest Georgia Arts Guild.