Chinoiseries I

The taste for designs and ornaments inspired by Chinese models started up in Europe in the XVIIth century, in England and the Netherlands first. These countries had indeed already established, at that time, strong and steady business relationships with the East.
It came to France a little later and really became a trend in the beginning of the XVIIIth century. This fashion gave birth to the most charming things, whether it be painted furnitures, fabric designs, paintings, tapestries and the like.
Chinoiserie designs were showing the everlasting seduction of exoticism but also expressed a real  admiration for chinese arts as well as for some aspects of chinese philosophy and society.

I created a "chinoiseries" collection for a Maison et Objet show a few years ago and ever since then I have orders for such designs. It is fun painting, full of charm and humor ; it is a nice playground for fantasy, nice color harmonies and strange vegetal forms...


Here is a version of a panel by A.Peyrotte. Casein on canvas ( approx. 210x100cm)

Pagode II

This another verison, the first I painted in fact, of the same design, on paper ( approx 180x75cm)

Pagode I

Here is now a series of paintings after the chinoiseries cartoons of F.Boucher.

Cipango I (150x85cm)

details on the face, before the aging proceses.

Cipango II (150x85cm)

Tian Shan ( 200x130cm)


The famous Giandomenico Tiepolo also painted a couple fo chinoiseries that I worked from in the following paintings

The next one is from a french ornemanist , Pillement.

Fleurs de chine ( 196x112cm)

and this very last panel is freely inspired and composed afer different designs of Pillement.

Rouge Orient ( 170x110cm)

Mats Carlsson

After Lotta's , here is Mats' ...

Mats and Lotta  have been running one of the leading schools in the industry , Palm Fine Arts  , for quite a few years now, ( have a look at their website ) , they organized Salon in Norrkoping in 1999 and propose a three week summer class ( see this post about 2011 mural week) each year . 

Lotta Olsson

I have been in this business for 25 years . I am lucky enough to know many of my peers and fellow painters, in different countries. Many of them have become friends , very dear friends.
Two of them are special for two reasons:
- they were the first ones to invite me to come teach in their country and consequently upgrade me to the status of "international" teacher ( woww!).
-they live in Sweden and apart from the mountains where I now live , the other place my wife and  I cherish in Europe is their homeland.

They are the "talented swedes", Mats Carlsson and Lotta Olsson.
I have seen them grow as painters and artists ( we have met each year for 13 years ) , I have always loved their style . They are extremely nice people , their work is full of sensitiveness , their skills remarkable and they are sincerely humble. I never get tired of hanging around with them .
Here are examples of Lotta's work ...

Paris in black and white.

One of my very best clients owns two hotels in the Quartier Latin, the area I prefer in Paris. I have been working for him for years and already wrote two posts about some paintings I did for him ( "Le Cavalier souriant" and the last picture of "Room with a view").

His wife also owns a hotel . I had done a mural there a few years ago. It was a nice traditionnal parisian hotel, called Riviera, right by the Arc de Triomphe, one of the hearts of Paris.
These clients have become aware that their best investment is in the image they create for their hotel ; it might seem quite obvious but many hotel owners of Paris still have to understand this!
 Hotel Riviera will be renovated , enhanced ,  nice pictures will be taken for the website and even though it is probably two small to become a 'three stars' it will be upgraded and become one of the most charming of the area.
It is also about to be renamed "Riviera-Elysee" and the style will dramatically change.
In the beginning , the theme I had to work on was "XIXth century Paris" but it gradually evolved and the owners asked me to work in a more modern way , to introduce referemces to Paris monuments, to fashion and particularly to Coco Chanel.

Here is what I did.
This is the mural that will be installed in the lobby:

Each of the six floors will have a name like" Louvre", "Eiffel" ...etc. and I have  done a series of drawings that will show the monument whose name is picked up for the storey , combined with some "fashion" sketches and and old illustration that the owner asked me to include in each of these drawings.

Here are a three of these drawings:

The stairwell will show some more "fashion sketches" inspired by Coco Chanel.

I painted them on canvases , theset  will be cut out around the edges and glue up on the walls. Here they are, on the wall of my studio :

And finally, I am also working on a new logo for the hotel ...here is my last version :