On the left you will find:
- Dessins : Ink on paper, pencil and pastel wood
- Peintures : Oils on canvas
- Techniques mixtes : Acrylic on canvas unprepared, wood, concrete, steel, wool, etc..
- Expositions : Views of exhibition spaces used
If you want to contact me, send me your details (email, phone, address, etc..) By clicking on the link « Contact«
You can also download files works with high resolution by opening the link « Téléchargements« .
Furthermore, I invite you to register by clicking on the link « Inscription » in the right menu. Once you have your username and password, you can connect and have access to my artist calendar. You will also have access to some works in progress.
The following describes briefly how I make my works.
Performance :: Daily Life Experiences
I draw and paint using my imagination, telling stories, depicting figures and characters acting in particular areas and landscapes. I often draw people’s faces from daily observation in subways, streets, offices and other public areas where I go. But my representation of them does not limit itself to their appearances and attitudes. In my painting, I try to investigate potential relationships between each one, and then picture a common life experience in our society.
I was inspired to create these images based on our broad daily life experience: Our social relationships can be pictured as short stories. As in « Burn ! Toulouse Burn ! », I wanted to depict tensions that reside between the police and people of some quarters in Toulouse, as well as in many cities in France. These symbols were created based on discussions I have had with many individuals about their opinions on current social matters, as well as newspaper, television and radio. I try to represent our « life together » in society with images from our everyday opinions, fears and hopes, to help us recognize and understand our common identity.
Images also emerge from closer life experiences with others. Every day, we get involved in smaller groups, such as work teams. For example, from my work in the technology area, I was inspired to depict the experience of a new engineer coming to work in an office for the first time. In « Ingénieur affrontant le Monde de l’Emploi », my intent was to represent the fears and feelings experienced by many new comers, which I have observed in different offices where I worked.
Administrative structures, workplace competitions, new routines can be traumatic and often generate a stressful panorama. My drawings and paintings deliver these images in a dialogue that I try to keep entertaining, providing space for the viewers to carry on the story and allowing them to create their own area to blend in images from what they see on a daily base. My art creates mental pictures of our daily experiences in relationship with others.
Valuaction :: Perspective issues
I have developed my method for drawings and paintings over many years. When I graduated from the Fine Arts of Quebec (1989) on large formats, I was busy dealing with perspectives issues. I discovered an effective perspective technique using acrylic paintings by adding sharp graphic elements as frames and patterns on fuzzy backgrounds. This brings out an optical effect creating different plans. Gradually, I focused my work on developing those frames and patterns with more precision, which led me to draw with indian ink on white paper using steel feathers (1990 – 1996).
Then, a few years later, I started to color frames and patterns to bring out even more perspective; first by using wood pencil and pastel (1996 – 2003), and then recently with the use of oil (2004). As such, I believe that oil, more than any other medium, provides the best use of color. The main reason is that oil paint generates nuances in the color itself when reflected by electric light or the sun. Also, oil creates depth in color, adding other layers of perspective plans. By painting with oil in transparency, the light creates the colors and their nuances which generates great perspective between background and foreground.
Score :: Oil Painting
Here is an overview of the current method I use to create oil paintings. I create my work by using layers of oil colors where I mix resines and oil, and need to let each layer dry about 2 months before another layer can be applied. This is crucial to avoid layers mixing together and to obtain a perfect superposition of colors which will be reflected by light. The entire process is quite lengthy but is necessary. In order to let the light perform appropriately, I pay great attention to the quality of the initial background. I use different natural whites as background to allow maximum light reflection. I also studied different approaches to old oil painting techniques to get that perspective effect of the light on the colors. When combined with frames and patterns, this creates several plans from background to foreground. My goal is to avoid the traditional use of the vanishing point in order to explore mental spaces and not be limited to photographic representation of the realty.
- Mounting the chassis with a semi-rigid fabric
- Apply rabbit-skin glue
- Apply rabbit-skin glue – chalk-white – lithopone
- Pre-drawing with ink and steel feather
- First layer of thin colored varnish
- Second layer with ocher or darker green with varnish
- Third layer with ochre or darker green with varnish
- Fourth layer called « dead » with a dominant secondary color
with varnish - Fifth layer with the primary colors of the final forms with
varnish - Sixth layer with details
- Seventh layer with finishing
- Varnish and general protection of the work
Resources :: Raw Materials
I enjoy creating artwork that incorporates raw material so as to create complex pieces with a high level of quality. For example, I prepare colors by making paste with yellow pigments from linenseed oil, then I add mediums by mixing Damar Resine with linseed oil in turpentine which I apply in transparency. This approach generates infinite possibilities to create effects and colors. I always focus on the quest for maximum use of light. Also, I enjoy researching experimentations from other artists and theorists and try to incorporate their concepts in my work.
- Animal Black (Ivory Black)
- Brushes
- Chalk White
- Drawing Paper
- Damar Resin
- Frame in wood from the market
- Frame in wood from the recycling of transport pallets found on
the streets of Toulouse and assembled by Eric Garnier-Audebourg - Indian Ink
- Linen cloth
- Linen 35% Polyester 65% cloth
- Linseed Oil Raw
- Lithopone
- Pastel
- Pencils
- Phthalocyanine Pigments
- Prussian Blue Pigments
- Pumice Powder
- Quinacridone Pigments
- Rabbit-Skin Glue
- Savon de Marseille
- Sable Brushes
- Spikes
- Steel Nail
- Turpentine
- Wood panels
- Yellow Pigments
Cycle RSVP [*]
As you may have noticed by reading the various sections, I have been using the « Creative Process in the Human Environment » concepts described by Laurence Halprin in « The RSVP Cycles » to introduce the audience to my work. This note is to share with you ideas that I consider very interesting to communicate about my work and art, in general.
Mainly, I find that Halprin’s method suits my work as the concepts can be used to approach the work of other artists. According to the author, the creative process is essentially based on four components: Resources, scores, valuaction and performance, all of which I used to frame the current artist statements. Following are Halprin’s definitions of each component.
[R] esources : which are what you have to work with. These include human and physical resources and their motivation and goals.
[S] cores : which describe the process leading to the performance.
[V] aluaction : which analyses the results of action and possible selectivity and decisions. The term « valuaction » is coined to suggest the action-oriented as well as the decision-oriented aspects of V in the cycle.
[P] erformance : which is the result of scores and is the « style » of the process (Halprin, 1969:2).
These four elements are bound to each other and describe « all procedures inherent in the creative process » (Halprin, 1969:2). For example, to create a piece, I select certain resources. This selection can be motivated by a previous evaluation of the work, from which some resources have been selected and others have been discarded. When executing the work with that selection of resources, the score is affected and modified.
I chose this approach as a method to describe and communicate my art because it provides the ability to visualize the way I do my work. It also provides a method to approach the work of other artists from all disciplines, to understand them, and to integrate their resources and scores in my work.
It is my hope that this method helps and inspires others with their creative process. The RSVP cycle deals with the analysis and communication of the creative process, and my intent is to use this framework to communicate my artwork with you.
Notes
[*]
Halprin, Laurence. 1969. « The RSVP Cycles. Creative Process in the Human Environment ». New-York : George Braziller