Observation

My paintings begin long before the first brushstroke.

The process starts with an encounter: a particular colour in the air, a veil of mist above the lake, moonlight dissolving into thin clouds, the glow of willow trees in sunlight, or an unexpected relationship between water, sky and land.

What interests me is rarely the subject itself. I am drawn to a visual event occurring within it.

Working primarily en plein air around Lake Léman and the canton of Vaud, I spend time observing before I begin to paint.

The challenge is to identify what creates the emotional intensity of a moment. Is it a colour relationship? A contrast of light and shadow? A particular atmosphere? A subtle shift in temperature between two areas of the landscape?

Once the central impression is identified, everything else becomes secondary.



Composition

Composition is not used to organize objects but to support the main visual experience.

Elements may be simplified, moved, reduced or omitted entirely if they distract from the essential impression. The goal is not to describe everything that is present, but to strengthen what first captured my attention.

A successful painting is a carefully constructed structure that allows the eye to move through the image while remaining connected to its central idea.


Color

Each painting becomes a study of how colours communicate with one another.

Colors influence, transform and respond to each other. Placed side by side, they create effects that do not exist in any single pigment alone.

Like people in partnership, colors become more than themselves. Together, they create atmosphere, emotion and a sense of space.

Alone, a colour is just a colour. Together, colors create direction.

This dialogue between colors, this colors’ partnership, is one of the central subjects of my work.


Plein Air as Research

Each painting tests a question: how can a particular sensation of light, air or color be translated into a two-dimensional image? To answer this I should experiment.

Mistakes are an important part of this process. They record decisions made under changing weather, shifting light and limited time. They preserve the trace of direct observation and the reality of the moment.

Under these conditions, when the artist must identify and express the essential idea immediately, it becomes clear what the painter is truly capable of.


A Visual Diary of Lac Léman

Over the years, this practice has become a visual diary of Lake Léman and its surroundings.

Returning repeatedly to the same places allows me to observe how light, atmosphere, architecture, vegetation and human presence transform throughout seasons and changing conditions.

What began as a fascination with landscape gradually expanded to include architecture and human presence, while remaining rooted in the changing qualities of light, colour and atmosphere that continue to shape my experience of place.

Partnership

Partnership appears throughout my work. Two mountains. Two figures. Two colors meeting at their boundary.

I am drawn to the space between them.

A color reveals itself through another color beside it.
A mountain gains its presence through the mountain facing it. A figure becomes more meaningful through the presence of another figure.

Alone, something exists. Together, it begins to communicate.

Perhaps this is why pairs return so often in my paintings.

The only solitary figure is the sailboat.


The Question and the Answer

Every painting begins with a question:
What exactly was it that made me stop and look?

The search for an answer leads not only to a deeper understanding of what I see, but also of who I am.

Each painting reveals a small fragment of that answer.

Over time, these fragments form a path.
A path towards myself.