False Trail

huile sur toile, 90×116 cm

Those men who aspire to go to Mars should take a walk in the forest. There, they would discover that they are already Martians—that they do not know the Earth they so despise. They no longer see it. They are impatient to escape life, caught in the technological illusion of a world forcibly reduced to code effects. A world without scent, without flavor, other than those of human secretions and the formaldehyde of their machines.

The forest, however, cannot be coded; it is secret, it smells of life and of death, which is called humus. The Martians have forgotten its mushroom paths, which, as Martin Heidegger once said, lead nowhere.

Portrait of the Artist as a Forest Spirit

huile sur toile, 100×100 cm

Our powerlessness in the face of the incompetence, arrogance, and cowardice of our professional politicians regarding the climate emergency leads us to call upon the spirits of the forest. For the spirits of the forest know how to enter dreams and sow humility and rebellion there.

War

huile sur toile, 100x100cm

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The Doe in the Woods

huile sur toile, 100×50 cm

In painting, the image of a doe in the woods has represented the epitome of bad taste for at least a century. Framed above the sideboard, whether an original or a reproduction, a bit yellowed—one could almost eat it up… Flea markets and yard sales are full of them. During a visit to the Salon, while standing in front of a painting depicting a pair of deer in the woods, Degas remarked, “A nice spot to take a piss!…” Alas, whether they’re pissing or not, who can deny the delight of encountering a young roe deer in the forest? And to hell with Degas, I had fun painting it. But I couldn’t ignore the fence.

Being-in-the-world

huile sur toile 80×80 cm

How can we view “nature” without reducing it to something in front of us, an object ultimately at the subject’s disposal? How can we paint a landscape without making it the inert reference of a representation (whether it be impressionist, expressionist, or any other style)? I asked myself this question during my previous painting: on the banks of the Volp. To paint the landscape while being immersed in it, and not from the exteriority of a subject facing its object… With this painting, the question becomes: how to paint the living? To paint the living without reducing it to a mere “being,” a thing… Take, for example, a dove. Existential philosophy considers that only humans are beings-in-the-world. Alone in the midst of entities that supposedly do not have a world of their own. But if no living being is separable from the whole of life that composes what we still, for lack of a better term, call nature, then can’t we think that every living being is being-in-the-world ? This may be where respect begins.

An Andalusian Night

huile sur toile, 100×100 cm

In the fluorescent light of a hotel room illuminated by the green water of the fountains in the Plaza del Triunfo in Granada, at the foot of the Albaicín where we had gone to watch the sunset to the sound of flamenco guitars played by a small group of young aficionados discovered around the corner of a white alley on one of those tiny garden terraces overlooking the Catholic city, I loved you to the point of tears, beautiful green night of Andalusia!

The artist, portrait of Philippe Pacalet

huile sur toile, 100 x100 cm

I knew Philippe Pacalet by reputation… I remember a lunch with a wealthy winemaker from Languedoc who, when I announced my preference for “natural” wines, brought up from his cellar a magnum without a label from a batch vinified without additives. It was his wine but transformed in its suppleness, its flesh, and the freshness of its fruit. He had made this experiment by hiring Philippe Pacalet. In my series of portraits of winemakers, I needed this “artist” whose wines, from numerous plots owned by the Côtes de Nuits and Beaune that he manages and vinifies for himself, exalt the natural beauty of Burgundy’s terroirs. My friend Roberto Petronio, collaborator of the Revue des Vins de France, had me taste them, and he organized a meeting at Philippe’s in Beaune. In the kitchen of his apartment where his Brazilian wife offered us dinner, I took a few photos and Roberto, better equipped, took some more assured ones. Armed with these shots and the memory of the tasting in the cellar that initiated this delightful evening, I attempted this portrait of a man whom I probably don’t know well enough to capture all facets, but of whom I believe I caught a glimpse of his presence.

Ô scarole!…

huile sur toile, 20×20 cm, coll. particulière Prix500€ + envoi

May Chuck Berry forgive me for this title. I enjoyed half of this salad for lunch, I kept the heart for the studio. Escarole is fragile, you have to be quick before its cascade of leaves collapses. Hopefully, we’ll eat it…

Concert de Suzanne Belaubre

Pour le décrochage de l’exposition du Carla-Bayle, Suzanne viendra donner un concert à la galerie le 29 septembre à 19h. Pour tous ceux qui sont dans les parages, on va se régaler. Entrée libre

Septembre au Carla-Bayle

Exposition d’une quarantaine de tableaux

Depuis l’exposition de la galerie Babel à Paris en 2021, mon travail a considérablement évolué. La chance de disposer de la grande galerie municipale du Carla-Bayle (Espace des Coucarils) durant tout le mois de septembre 2023 me permet de montrer cette évolution à travers 3 séries de tableaux: la série des portraits de femmes que je suis ravi de pouvoir rassembler dans une même salle, la série des “mythologies” qui en occupera une autre et une série que j’ai appelée “à la vie, à la mort” qui réunit des tableaux sensuels et heureux à d’autres plus tragiques, la série de la vie quoi!.. Le Carla Bayle est un village d’artistes, c’est si l’on veut le “Saint-Paul de Vence” de l’Ariège à quelques lieues de Toulouse. D’excellents artistes dont plusieurs de renommée internationale y travaillent et y exposent. Je suis très heureux d’être parmi eux en compagnie du Sculpteur sur métal Michel Sarniguet et de la Céramiste Danièle Coustures. La campagne autour est très belle, les montagnes sont là devant et pour tout ceux qui cherchent leur destination de promenade en septembre, c’est ici qu’il faut venir. Il fera beau j’espère, si ce n’est dehors, au moins dans les tableaux et les sculptures…