LOVE & PEACE 13 Painting

I was born in Paris June 12th, 1954 in a family where art, in all its forms, was something natural. I have always drawn and painted from a very early age in all types of media, i.e. paper, natural slate, assemblies made with recycled objects, collages and cardboard. From 1979 to 2001 I was a tour leader for well-known tour operators. I specialised in central Europe which allowed me to discover the monuments, museums, cultures and traditions from Paris to Istanbul, Lisbon to Amsterdam, making me respectful of the differences in diversity and making me “a citizen of the world”. I never stopped painting during this period and I am totally devoted to painting since 2001. After living in the north of France, I currently live in a house in the south between Montpellier and Narbonne, where the space allows me the opportunity to create a large workshop. I am totally self-taught and want freedom in my creations. Art for me is not cerebral, but visceral. Although this expression lacks elegance, painting must be “the soul spewing forth”. This is certainly the way I feel about my painting. Nothing is reasoned, everything must be spontaneous and when the spontaneity breaks down, my work is destroyed. I do not redo them. I create by different “series”. I can stay on a “series” from some weeks (“Usine des Dunes”) to several years (“Mirages”, “Portraits Alu”). The “Work” series is essential because it allows me to deepen “the technique”, although I hate this word in the artistic sphere. I know when I start a painting in a Series that it will be the last one, the completion point, because the realisation of this painting is becoming “an over-used recipe” and is no longer the domain of my artistic creation. Sometimes between two sets there can be an agonising period during which I do not know what will leap out at me. Sometimes the idea of the next set, born before the end of the existing one, can influence the direction in one parallel way whilst appearing to do the opposite (Series “Mirages”, “Lenine”, “Portes”, black portrait on black background, are really close to the coloured series “Portraits Alu”). Being self-taught I always forbade myself to take painting classes or watch artists at work in case I liked their work. This way I would not be influenced or swayed to copy them and therefore retain the spontaneity of my own discoveries and creations.