INTERVIEW
This TV interview (Nîmes channel) dates from 2010. It was during my first solo show at the « Galerie de la Salamandre » in Nîmes that I decided to “Face” my work as a painter. We can discover what animated me at the time : painting large portraits. The faces are overexposed, the contrasts increased, the framing is off-center and brought closer to bring a dimension of proximity. My painting is done directly on paper.
SELF-PORTRAIT IN A DAY (stop motion)
Dating from 2007, this self-portrait was made in 8 hours. At this time, I painted portraits and self-portraits exclusively on paper and cardboard. I was fascinated by the light and the contrasts on faces. The challenge was to paint on a very large format (2.5 m x 1.5 m) in one day to stay in the picture and and not leave inspiration behind.
THE ACT OF PAINTING
In this video, you can see the evolution of my work. There is no preliminary drawing. I paint quickly to follow my ideas. Acrylic allows me to superimpose layers quickly and play with transparencies. The gas station was my favorite subject for ten years (from 2011 to 2021)..
COLLEGE MURAL PAINTING
I painted this fresco during an artistic intervention at Vergèze college with third-grade students in 2023. The subject was “poetic landscape” as part of the Pass Culture program (access system to cultural activities set up by the French government). We studied landscape through the centuries and each student produced a photographic work. Then we chose a model and we draw our inspiration from it.
IN THE STUDIO
Here is my studio. It’s a small room in my apartment. All my painting material is neatly organized and my paintings are stored on a mezzanine. In the future, I would like to invest in a new, much larger space to be able to work on greater formats and thus expand my gesture.
BY DRAWING
Since the lockdown (3 years ago) I have started drawing again. I love representing the objects that lie around in my daily life : phone charger, post-it note, sunscreen and other houseplants… I assemble them into small scenes to create meaning before drawing them freehand with differents brands of markers on extra smooth Clairefontaine paper.
JEAN’S
To make my paintings enter into vibration, I use a particular pictorial technique. First, I load my brushes with paint, then I rub them against my jeans. This system allows me not only to save time in my gesture by mixing the colors directly on me, but also to remove the excess of acrylic on my brush. These palettes are the guardians of time, I keep them as a track of the evolution of my chromatic choices when I paint a picture.
STATION GAS
My favorite subject for almost 10 years ! I have photographed all the gas stations over the course of my life. I love these night scenes. In addition to its very aesthetic aspect, it always feels like a movie where people meet in a daze… A place of transition, comfort, resources… There is always something special going on there.
ON THE ROAD
I’m fascinated by the road. That’s why I spend my life filming it. I record it and I combine it with music to create an atmosphere. It’s for me the same work as in painting : I try to couple sound and image. Pre-existing music brings an additional dimension full of meaning. These road videos also serve as a model for painting and vice versa.