Corsairs
Corsair is a state of mind.
My portraits are Corsairs, just as a silver cup painted by Chardin is a Corsair.
Rembrandt’s self-portraits are Corsairs…
Caravaggio’s and Zurbarán’s Saint Catherines are Corsairs…
The portraits of Titian, Bronzino, Lotto and Andrea del Sarto — Corsairs all!
Van Dyck, Philippe de Champaigne and Snyders — Corsairs too, with their impetuous still lifes!
To be a Corsair is a state of mind!
Je tire ma révérence
Selfportrait - Oil on canvas 116 x 89 cm - 2017
Private collection
Experience
My hawk is a hunter.
He is the one who decides when the moment is right.
He is the one who anticipates and prepares.
He does not wait for his prey to surrender without a fight. He does not wait for its death; he imposes it.
His beauty unfolds as he spreads, like a hurricane spreading across the world.
He generously offers what he wants, and to whom he wants, from what he has gained.
L’Épervier
Oil on canvas · 116 × 89 cm · 2005
He aims the cannon at you, having lit the fuse with his cigar.
In the expression I wanted to make difficult to grasp, there is a mixture of arrogance and tragedy in a face marked by life, Spanish “grandesse” and the madness of Russian roulette, cruel irony and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, whose title he adopts.
He challenges us from the depths of his disillusioned being and declares war on us.
By confronting us with death, he wants to confront us with ourselves.
Are we afraid of him, or do we pity him?...
L’Hymne à la joie
Oil on canvas · 100 x 73 cm · 2005
The telescope of my Clairvoyant is called Love...
If Love does not make us blind, it reveals secrets that no one else would have perceived.
Le clairvoyant
Oil on canvas · 116 x 89 cm · 2005
Experience
It smells of sulphur, rum and tobacco.
Like the mythical salamander, he has survived every blaze. This is the work in red.
At its heart rise the reminiscences of ardent battles from which he emerged, not unscathed, but strengthened. All these trials have ultimately forged their key.
The dark, tinted glasses are directed towards the past, on the left.
And while new torments still lie ahead, the Corsair's sly, cerulean eyes mock destiny.
Les dernières cartouches
Oil on canvas · 100 × 100 cm · 2007
In Plan de Bataille, the gaze is the centre of my composition.
Sharper even than knives, it is honed by unwavering determination.
The inner being seeks here to expand into the world.
The hold of the ship evokes the depths of the self, where the most hidden intentions are often conceived, matured and plotted.
Plan de bataille
Oil on canvas · 100 x 100 cm · 2005
When consciousness loses itself in unfathomable mysteries, all that remains to call us back is the fixed gaze of the little dog that still keeps watch.
He embodies the animal and instinctive part of our being.
The man is crowned by a black, cosmic fish-like form that engulfs his head, hiding from us the sunlight glimpsed beyond. His consciousness is eclipsed by a veil of smoke.
In the foreground, Leonardo da Vinci's studies of lunar eclipses are clear and luminous.
L’éclipse
Oil on canvas · 90 x 90 cm · 2005
Private ollection
Experience
The little girl has arranged around herself a collection of shells, those magical, pearlescent skeletons, witnesses to so many lives past.
She has also built a sand fortress, a domain at whose heart she proudly raises her pennant — a symbol of the riches gathered within her soul — captured from the wrecked ship of the final battle.
Immersed in stories and tales of initiation, the inner self takes shape, building its own framework.
The individual builds upon the ashes of battles fought, whether glorious or tragic.
L’écho des combats héroïques
Oil on canvas · 130 × 97 cm · 2005
The homeless man who modelled for Fleur Bleue had the bearing of a lord. I therefore portrayed him in sumptuous attire, offering you a small flower whose colour echoes that of his gaze, the colour of his soul…
His spirit bows to no system that does not originate from within himself.
The compass resting on the table points towards the only North he acknowledges: his own heart.
For a man such as this, material wealth is of no consequence. The little flower he offers you is worth more, in his eyes, than the most magnificent treasures.
Fleur bleue
Oil on canvas · 54 x 46 cm · 2006
Private collection
In The Autocrat, discover the mystery and power of the human ego, concentrated in the eyes of a child.
This notion of the “self” — so elusive that even the deepest psychological analysis struggles to define it — is the cornerstone of our personality.
In this painting, everything swirls, dances and whirls around the child’s gaze: resolute, determined and full of will.
L’Autocrate
Oil on canvas · 116 x 89 cm · 2005
Private collection
Experience
“Do not regard Art as a choice made within the world, but as the integral transformation of the world itself into splendour.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
Le feu sacré
Oil on canvas · 43,5 x 29 cm · 2005
A Corsair emerges from the shadows, wearing a black-feathered hat and holding his sword with unwavering resolve.
Vantablack
Oil on canvas · 130 x 97 cm · 2019
Private collection
My Andaluz embodies, as its name suggests, the light as it ventures deep into the darkness.
El Andaluz
Oil on canvas · 30 x 22 cm · 2006
Private collection
Aencre Noire exudes an air of proud self-assurance.
His sense of self is firmly rooted within him, standing upright like the letter “I” as he faces us. His arms form an impenetrable barrier.
There is no cause for concern: the treasure chest will be well guarded.
Above all, I sought to convey the sheer weight of his jewellery — the only chains capable of binding him.
Aencre noire
Oil on canvas · 73 x 60 cm · 2005
Experience
Figurative and expressive, every brushstroke evokes the depths of the soul, as impressionistic interplay of light and shadow brings the scene to life.
This painting speaks of encounters and silent contemplation, where the dramatic tension is almost palpable.
Le Corbeau et le Renard
Oil on hardboard · 80 x 60 cm · 2005
Private collection
Alone on his island, his thoughts are no longer captive.
Nor occupied.
Like his large dog, he relaxes, until he becomes as flat as the horizon line on which he rests.
His meditation unfolds between the black and white stripes of his trousers, between shadow and light, between white and black.
What lies in the background?
Black? White?
Between the bars, he loses his sense of direction, until he becomes senseless.
And, like the King’s Fool, he has freely crossed the boundaries between worlds.
Le Havane
Oil on canvas · 80 x 80 cm · 2006
He explores the depths of his own inner world with the tip of his sabre, seeking to uncover its darkest and most unfamiliar realms.
A castaway adrift in time, he has finally gained the distance and perspective required for this “Nigredo” — the alchemical Work in Black.
In the background, The Shipwreck by William Turner.
la route du Soi
Oil on canvas · 116 x 89 cm · 2006
La Punaise may well be the most unsettling of my works. Hollywood has led us to imagine the female pirate as voluptuous, ever-smiling and seductively alluring.
My Punaise is none of these things.
If she is voluptuous, it is through the richness of her dense, unctuous paint, shimmering with a thousand layers of coloured glazes.
This red-haired fortress fiercely encloses her treasure. Her resolute soul lies in wait, like a ferret poised to pounce. She guards her most precious treasure: her own self.
Come closer, lured by the riches she covets, as one hand reaches out expectantly — and the other will strike you dead without a moment’s hesitation.
It is a game she takes exquisite delight in.
Just as I do.
La Punaise
Oil on canvas · 100 x 100 cm · 2005
The Corsair never truly sleeps.
But what occupies his thoughts as he keeps watch over the treasures he has amassed?
Like the young dog beside him, perhaps a part of him still longs to conquer the world.
La retraite
Oil on canvas · 122 x 91 cm · 2006