When new customers visit my 400 square metre studio, the inevitable question comes up: ‘How many artists do you exhibit?’
I find it difficult to explain to them the reason for this variety.
I'm not looking for myself, but I hate repetition. There are good days and hopeless days, fruitful coincidences, a big, angry stroke that is sometimes brilliant.
It's a form of addiction to always wish to create something new!
My workplace resembles a minefield in which I move between three large easels, the floor only loosely protected by huge cardboard boxes, which in turn are covered with other, smaller artworks still in progress. Tubes of paints, pigments, varnishes, sprays, brushes, rollers and palette knives are scattered around the centre or submerged in large buckets of water.
I am a happy and multitasking artist. Unable to stay in one place, I always work in parallel on several pieces, often in completely different styles.
When looking through my creations, I myself find it difficult to categorise my art. Impressionism, expressionism, modern art, pop art, abstraction ... the definitions and boundaries are sometimes fluid!
And how should I categorise or define my ‘reversible’ canvases?
I like bold colours on large formats where I feel free and anxious at the same time, seeing things within things and finding it hard to stop myself from seeing too much!
I also like to work on small formats, crouching down and letting liquid white or black acrylic paint flow onto canvases with a coloured background or onto old music scores.I also enjoy collages, painting on wood or putting pieces of colourful palettes together.
In addition to painting, I have immersed myself in the fascinating world of upcycling.This involves transforming forgotten treasures into artworks.The materials and ideas are almost endless. Their creation is often complicated and similar to a tetrix.For example, old, often damaged historical mannequins are combined with historical bicycles, rusty tools steeped in history, pieces of wood, damaged furniture and chairs, broken aeroplane parts, fabrics steeped in history, old lamps or power cables with mysterious connections... all combined.
I like to laugh, have a sense of humour and am happy when I throw away my wet paintbrush or hammer and cheer: ‘Fini!’.
It's wonderful to know that you never stop learning and discovering!