44 Watercolor artist | APRIL 2020
what motivate me. I’m self-taught regarding paper choice
and preparation; brush selection, which is so particular for
certain practices; and the choice of colors, whether in pots,
tubes or trays; whether transparent, opaque or mixed; and
whether created for students or professionals.
Unlike many of my fellow artists who have painted in
watercolor for a long time—giving painting demonstra-
tions and participating in numerous exhibitions—I work
alone and don’t teach. I live in Paris, where my studio is
a room in my apartment.How do you achieve a sense of depth and perspective
in paintings that fi ll the picture plane and have no
background?
When a drawing is enriched with values or colors, the ele-
ments in the foreground support the strongest details—
particularly the strongest contrasts that soften with dis-
tance. Even in an indistinct drawing, this favors the illusion.Your colors are clear, refl ecting brilliantly the world
around you. How do you keep your mixes so clean?
I buy artists’ colors, and I primarily use transparent or
semitransparent colors. Th e opaque tones that fl occulate
are kept for special eff ects. I never use black. To darkena shade, I use a dense mix of the pig-
ment or neighboring tones that are
more intense. A color and its comple-
mentary give me a gray. I rarely mix
more than three tones, and I focus on
playing off warm versus cool.Do you use masking fl uid
for the details in your works?
It depends on the painting. I often do
without, as the contrast is too stark
compared to the rest of the painting,
and repainting a detail is a delicate
process. It’s too apparent in the details,“All of the pleasure is
in making one’s own
discoveries and monitoring
one’s progress—to let the
mind and hand express
themselves and give form
to what one is trying to do.”BOTTOM LEFT
Réfl exions
á Montréal
(watercolor on
paper, 27¼ x19¾ )BOTTOM RIGHT
Résille No. 2
(watercolor on
paper, 23½ x15¾ )