42 Watercolor artist | APRIL 2020
T
here is life after retirement.
When French artist Jean-
Claude Lizerand retired 20
years ago at the age of 60,
he began to spend more time with
his family and grandchildren in
Provence and Brittany, a world away
from his home city of Paris. He began
to focus on his art in a way that his
schedule hadn’t allowed when he was
working full time.
After receiving his degree in archi-
tecture and interior design, he worked
in a profession focused on public
transport and was involved in explor-
ing new modes of transportation in
and around Paris. As part of this
work, he participated in the evolution
of technological, urban and sociologi-
cal solutions to problems in urban
mobility. Photography—an essential
tool for this work—later became an
essential tool for his art.“Thesoleand
truesubject
formy
painting
always
remains
painting
itself—and
thepleasure
derivedfromit.”Upon retiring, Lizerand dusted off his brushes; made pre-
sentable the drawings, pastels and oil paintings that he had
managed to complete in his spare time; and embarked on
the journey of exhibiting and selling his work. Along the
way, he experimented with watercolor, which took his work
to new heights—literally—as the artist began to focus his
painting on vibrant urban facades bordering on the abstract.
Lizerand candidly shares his thoughts here about, among
other things, why photography is the impetus for his cre-
ative process, what he believes lurks behind the corporate
buildings he paints and how his appreciation of beauty
guides him forward.What has been your experience as a painter? Have you
had formal artistic training?
I’ve always drawn, from a very young age, but I painted
somewhat less, especially as I grew older. Although
I had some practice in the past, I’ve really only been paint-
ing for the last dozen years or so. I’ve become especially
drawn to watercolor because it doesn’t aff ect my health the
way that painting with oil paint and solvents did. Th ere’s
no more pastel dust, even though pastels had rekindled
my liking for seeing things in color.Les Stores Bleus
(watercolor on
paper, 19¾ x27½ )