Errbet, painter

Brushes were my first instruments.One day, I painted a small painting with a brush but I added a few touches with a knife in order to highlight the foreground.

At the following exhibition, I took this painting that was among the other classic ones, painted with a brush. Among the visitors, an old lady came:

"They are beautiful paintings", she said. I was about to thank her for her flattering words, but she added:

"... But in fact they are more postcards ..."

“Yes, she continued, you reproduce reality faithfully and these are quite nice pictures but they are just photos. Only that one has a bit of something."

And she showed me the small painting I had brought.

"You'd better go on that way !," and she went away leaving me speechless.

I thought about it for a long time after the end of the exhibition.

So I was just making photos with my brushes. Only the small painting was interesting .

So I tried other paintings, mixing knife with brushes. I started to enjoy handling the paint, spreading it on the canvas to create a real relief that allowed me to highlight the depth,.I soon used the knife again .

Now, I would not even think of using another instrument.I feel a real ,physical pleasure, manipulating the material and sometimes I feel shivers when I feel paint under my spatula, revealing the image I had on my mind, as intoxicated by the scent of oil painting.

I never saw this old lady again but I'd like to meet her again and thank her, not for having encouraged me to make maybe different achievements, but for having allowed me to discover the true pleasure of painting.

Depending on the mood, depending on the time, according to what I have experienced, I want to paint a landscape that I saw recently, a monument that caught my eye. Sometimes I want to represent life, painting a crowd or a character or more, an attitude, to restore music with colour .

Then I get paintings with a "landscapes" or "characters" trend. In exhibitions, it seems that if someone likes one , he does not always like the other one ... and vice versa.

But you can also like neither of them !

PAINTER