Mes Nympheas 76 Painting

To paint water lilies in 2018 ?? I have been longing to meet Claude Monet for a long time, by this dialogue between painters that has been going on for... a long time... Monet has created this work of art surprising by the modernity of its volume, Monet as the precursor to monumental art works, but also by the way he shaped his increasingly abstract flowers, the harmony of the colours... the choice to abandon the structuring logics of landscape painting... announcing impressionism. Realism and abstraction... In his time, Monet used to dialogue with Jongkind, Bourdin, his elders... And also Courbet, Manet... Courbet used to hate idealism. « Because the ideal, according to him, is far poorer, far less vast, far less mysterious than reality. » (text by Yvon Taillandier in his book : Monet) My search between abstract and figurative-realism has led me to create an accessible kind of abstraction, full of possibilities, thanks to a little figurative «key», inspired by the realism of a water lily... Monet has inspired a whole generation of painters such as Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, Jean Paul Riopelle, Sam Francis. Each one of them moves me, profoundly... I love Pollock’s work, the freedom of his movement, his will to exceed the limits of the frame, Riopelle and his overlapping colours a contemporary vibration and impressionism, Mitchell and her completely abstract paintings, so full of vivid colours... the pure abstraction of Sam Francis, and Jenkins... When contemporary art is recognized by its provocative quality, I want to take a different path that leads, not to construction, structuring, nor to destruction or destructuring, but to feeling our « pulse of life », in our bodies, reconnect this inner source. To feel the link between the beauty of nature, the strength of the living energy, and our lives, our bodies,. A planet like a big body, a common emotion and sensuality. With these paintings, I would like to draw the viewer towards the beauty of real nature, magnificent and so close, all the time, in every context, ocean, forest, field, flowers, rivers, mountains... that needs nothing else but a benevolent and admiring eye. I enjoy approaching the theme of these flowers, in my work with trowels, knives, and other tools created for the occasion... my search for matter effects... of transparencies, light... I have worked with a harmony of colours composed of blues, yellows, greens, turquoises, violets, contemporary and gay, lively... close to Nature. And played with the reflections, the shadows. I love to start off with the beauty of Nature, real, and to let inspiration come to me... an inner vision, that guides my movements. My work on water lilies has procured me great pleasure : to create abstract paintings, and to open a gate to a whole imaginary world... Are we in a blue jungle, on a river bank, a lake... under trees and reflections of the sun... ??? Surprised at first, every viewer travels as he pleases and remains contemplative, calm, peaceful, joyous... The meaning I want to give to my paintings... : to testify of the threatened beauty of our planet… We can generate a new world, new relationships… a new consciousness of being, in order to change the vicious circle of destruction in which we are… I believe there is a whole part of humanity who want to fight to save our planet, and to build in stead of destroying... I have been surprised to read the following in the dictionary of symbols : « A big lotus brought out of the essential waters is the cradle of the sun in the first morning. Opening their corolla at dawn and closing it in the evening, the white water lilies, to the Egyptians, concretized the birth of the world from the wet. » In India, water lilies also represent the beauty of Life, searching the light of the sun, born in the rich mud at the bottom of the water... Even if we wade in the mud of our human meanders, we can feel the richness of our pulse of life, in the bottom of our hearts, and choose to live it, to express it, to let it get the upper hand over our death pulse... Surviving... is exhausting, and doesn’t lead any where... I choose to paint the pulse of life, Eros rather than Thanatos... I would like my water lilies to tempt people who contemplate them to dive into peace, beauty, and so finding a kind of resource of natural tenderness and strength, this pulse of life that is present inside all of us, in each flower, each grain of sand, each drop of water, for what we need to do : to reveal ourselves alive, and change every thing. To abandon constraints, to believe in Life... to believe in the butterfly effect, there are already many people on earth who believe in Life... and fight for Life... I love to believe that we can create a force of Life... stronger than anything else.