I have always wanted to paint and draw...
I remember that in college I created drawings on my cardboard dividers and at home I had fun doing them on sheets of paper.
At the age of 14, in 1972, my mother gave me a very beautiful box of oil paints and canvases. I reproduced one of the self-portraits of Vincent van Gogh, a painter I loved very much. Then I created a still life with the imperfections of my young age and without the advice of a professional to correct them.
At the age of 15, in high school, I took part in a plastic arts workshop which allowed us to express ourselves. I created another still life in oil, suggested by our teacher, which I still have. I improved my technique. I also bought a few books on this technique allowing me to better understand how to proceed, the relationship of colors and values etc…
I continued to paint canvases until the age of 21.
As at home there wasn't much space I quickly had to stop.
After passing my baccalaureate in 1975, I decided to follow the path of becoming a DPLG architect, my wish having always been to be a painter. But I told myself that breaking into this field is quite difficult and that with training as an architect I could always find work in various companies.
I selected a workshop at UP4 at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, quai Malaquais in Paris, which trained us, among other things, in drawing with black chalk on large formats. After two years I could draw landscapes, buildings, and all kinds of statues and objects in museums from life. At the same time, I took nude classes at the Beaux-Arts workshops in the city of Paris. Always large formats in charcoal and black chalk.
I chose to take the Fine Arts plastic arts competition for which I had not really prepared, in parallel with my architectural studies. There were three tests: the nude, the imaginative drawing and the presentation of a work. I passed it but obviously not being among the best ranked I couldn't choose the workshop I liked.
For health reasons I did not complete my architectural diploma and once I entered working life I gave up, it required too much energy.
I continued to make nude drawings at the Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse for a few years. With a little notebook I had fun sketching people sitting on café terraces.
I started painting again with great pleasure at the age of 39 in 1999. I created many self-taught watercolors, painting from life or from my photos. Working in an architectural agency from the age of 41 and the work being fascinating, I gave up painting.
Since September 2022 I have resumed watercolor by following group lessons which allow me to be with other students and to be followed by a teacher. I did an 8-day internship on the Ile de Ré as well as in Morocco.
I am at the same time a Fine Arts workshop in the city of Paris where I create oils and acrylic paintings on the theme of chimeras and metamorphoses.
