Le Monde Proche

Paysages (Landscapes) Formats variés

What do we retain of a landscape we love? A moment that is outside of time, an atmosphere, the light, a silence… No matter where the trees, the rocks, the path or the clouds really are; more than just our eyes it is our whole body that is seeing, feeling, breathing and vibrating. Whilst a photo can only capture the appearance, our being perceives with every sense the expanse before us: the temperature, the density of the air, birds singing, the sounds of crickets and grasshoppers, the perfume of flowers, the scent of the plants, of the soil, the breeze coming up from the valley below, an echo, the rustling of leaves… No picture could treat so many different sensations, so here I have chosen to abandon images, to retain just the shiver of excitement, the invisible connection between all things.

Through gestures and colour, in a deliberate yet subtle calligraphy, I wanted to present the characteristics of the natural elements that make up the landscape: earth, stone, water, vegetation, trees, the sky, clouds… The written form of these different elements suggests a landscape, an energy, the breath of life that flows through and unites each detail, each part of this interiorized vision of nature.

Horizons (Horizons) 155 x 85 cm

Récits Fabuleux (Fabulous Tales) 102 x 95 cm

In counterpoint to Symétries, where the lines describe a perfectly balanced architecture, the Récits Fabuleux are constructed with random lines which cover the surface of the canvas. These lines are not drawn but created beforehand with a linen filament that is stuck to a thin sheet of paper, then assembled to create an impression of continuity, to form a supple succession of curved lines.

This raised design follows the meanders and the natural tensions of the filament. It represents nothing. It obeys the fluidity, the movement and the entanglement of the curves, their occupation of space. It is matter purified, where actions follow actions and elements converse in a fundamental mobility that lends itself wonderfully to the appearance of a baroque, even whimsical space.

The filaments materialise a sort of energy current to which the colours add their own luminous energy. In this play of density and intensity, the painting becomes a dynamic stage where, in passing, evocations of a distant world come into being, a world of heroes and legends, tales wherein ideals and virtuous impulses are to be found. These ‘virtues’ appear incarnate in the colours themselves.

The organisation of these turbulent universes is founded on the hierarchy of colours and the arrangement of volumes. All that counts is the circulation of subtle forces within the painting and their repercussions on our mental and psychological universe.

Feuillages (Foliage) Formats variés

Who has never been fascinated by the shadows cast by leaves on a sheet of paper, the ground or the façade of a house?

In the Sun’s glare, each tree describes a specific dark outline in which it is sometimes possible to distinguish one variety from another… depending on the shape of the leaves and the way they are disposed. Each tree has its own handwriting, its own signature.

I choose leaves and branches both for the simplicity of the phenomenon and for the drawing’s complexity. I do not worry about shape but about the play of light. I scrutinize the harmony present in the exchanges between colours, between zones of shadow and light.

Each painting proposes a particular quality and intensity of light.

Each painting fixes the light of a unique moment that will never be repeated.