My sources of inspiration

“Painting is the unchanging mirror of
all that is most beautiful in the universe”
Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, called Ylipe

I like observing nature, people and objects ; despite the passing of time, everything remains a source of wonder and emotion for me.

My main sources of inspiration are :

• The endless power of suggestion and symbolism of colours ; every colour conjures up a particular “world”, which when combined with other colours, can evolve and be transformed, endlessly ;

• reading, particularly :
  
  ► romantic poetry, which particularly appeals to me because of its vibrant homage to the beauty of nature and to simple things, of the passionate feelings it conveys, often half-way between hope and despair, of the existential issues it raises through the use of metaphors and surrealist images (Alphonse de Lamartine, Charles Baudelaire, Théodore de Banville, Paul Verlaine, Victor Hugo, William Wordsworth, John Keats, William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley,…) ;
  
  ► books concerned with astronomy ; despite not being a scientist, I have a fascination for nebulae and constellations, and a passion for works by Hubert Reeves, Stephen Hawking and André Brahic on these topics ;
  
  ► books concerned with symbolism, philosophy, religion, mythology and ancient civilisations, as well as with the origins of humanity ;
  
  ► novels, particularly by Oscar Wilde, Jules Verne, Bernard Werber, Denis Guedj and Michel Houellebeck ;

•  Music, which is essential to my creative process :
  
  ► Jazz, particularly when sung (Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy, Stacey Kent, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Sara Lazarus, Nathalie Cole, Lisa Ekdahl, Norah Jones, Fredrika Stahl, Lizz Wright, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Peter Cincotti, Harry Connick Jr,...) ;
  
  ► "Black Soul" particularly associated with Gospel (Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Elvis Presley's Gospels,...) pop (Amy Whinehouse, Duffy, Joss Stone, Katie Melua,...), folk and reggae (Ayo) or Rhythm and Blues (Alicia Keys, Leona Lewis,...) ;
  
  ► Classical Music (Frédéric Chopin, Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Tomaso Albinoni et Felix Mendelssohn), great tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Roberto Alagna et Placido Domingo) and "cross-over" (especially Katherine Jenkins);
  
  
• ... Finally, of course works by the great painters of the past, which have inspired and moved me, and left their mark in my heart and mind, in particular those by :
  
  ► painters of the Italian Renaissance (Sandro Botticelli, MichelAngelo and Léonardo da Vinci) for the perfection of their works, their sacred symbolism and overall harmony ;
  
  ► romantic painters of the 19th Century (William Blake and William Turner) and the Impressionnists (Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley…) for the vibrant homage they gave to light and to the beauty of Nature ;
  
  ► the pre-raphaelites (Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Sir John William Waterhouse) and also in a more formal style Emile Vernon and William Adolphe Bouguereau, for the subtlety they gave to shapes, the attention they gave to detail, their love for feminity, the strong emotional impact of their work and the touching impression they convey of « times gone by » ;
  
  ► and finally, amongst the great paintings of the last century, I love the harmony of the combined colours and gold displayed in Art nouveau (Gustav Klimt), the poetic and naive character of watercolours by Marie Laurencin, the fragile and delicate works by Amadeo Modigliani, the strong and vivid colours of Fauvism (Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and George Braque), the strongly symbolic and imaginary power of the Surrealists (Salvador Dali and René Magritte), with their combined mystique and humour, the «dada» paintings by Francis Picabia and Andy Warhol's pop art.

The story behind my paintings...

To discover my sources of inspiration & the symbolism for any given work, please click on this icon, which you can find under each painting on the "galleries" pages :