05-06-20 Drawing

Theophile DELAINE is born in 1969 in Champagne. From his earliest childhood, his parents drove him around in Volkswagen minibus ; Greece, northern Africa, Afghanistan and Nepal, which marked him with a permanent desire for escape and freedom. At the age of 19, he went to Paris to study music at the University of Paris VIII and the conservatory. He already liked to draw but he discovered then the world of plastic arts and contemporary art of the capital. He then started to follow the curriculum Arts Plastiques at the university, visiting museums of Europe and elsewhere, galleries, exhibitions, sculpture on earth, on wood, collages, watercolor, chalk and many other supports. He will make many very enriching encounters. During all these years of learning, he nevertheless remained faithful to his double bass, following a classical formation and playing in jazz clubs. He will gradually end up abandoning music for brushes. At 23, he finally embarks on painting, working on technique, composition, harmony of colors ... At 26 he leaves to live in Crete where he enjoys drawing portraits of the mountaineers in the Kafénion. Throughout this time, he seeks to graphically express the need for freedom that characterizes him. Although he appreciates the expressiveness of Paul Rebeyrolles and the great sensitivity of Van Gogh, Zao Wou Ki's painting will ultimately be revealing. From there, at about 28 years, the pictorial adventure really begins. At 30 years old, he settles in Limousin, sets up a small workshop and paints - a lot, non-stop! He begins to sell paintings, takes up plastic art studies to perfect his theoretical knowledge and organizes his first solo exhibition. But it is not enough to paint to feel free, we must live it to paint it. Then, in 2004, he leaves again and expatriates to Madagascar where, for several years, his painting will flourish. He exposes very regularly in various places on the big island. At the age of 46, he leaves Madagascar for La Réunion where he exposes his pictorial reflections since the beginning of 2016