"BOUBOUNELLE and Contemplative Landscapes"

I was born in 1962 in Bougival, a small village close to Louveciennes where I have lived for the past seven years. I have a brother and a sister. My father was a draftsman for a large automobile company and my mother was a teacher. Both my parents have a gift for and an interest in art. In fact, now that they are retired, they are amateur painters. I thank them for inspiring me to paint, and for supporting and encouraging my passion for art. I have always wanted to be a painter.

I spent most of my childhood at home because I was often sick with asthma and bronchitis. Now I am in great health and my childhood memories are rather pleasant because, instead of going to school, I painted and drew. I spent the summer holidays in the center of France and I would stroll through the countryside with my easel and paints.

As of the age of seven, I took painting and drawing classes with the sculptor Jeannine de la Personne, in Louveciennes. She was original and austere at the same time, and she became like a grandmother to me. She would listen to jazz at night and sculpt during the day. We often shared our passions while lunching on the corner of a table laden with sculptures-in-progress. As she aged, I replaced her as a teacher. It is she who gave me what she referred to as “the sacred fire for art”.

After high school, I attended the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués, the Paris National School for Applied Arts. I graduated in 1983 and that is when I met Marie-Anne, my wife to be. Our first child, our son Théo was born in 1988. I was teaching then and beginning to show my work in galleries. In 1991, luck came upon me when The French Institute awarded me the first prize of La Casa de Vélazquez. This prize, which is equal to the Prix de Rome (Rome’s highest artistic award), exposes the representative of each artistic discipline (painter, sculptor, screenwriter, photographer, and architect) to foreign cultures, and allows him to practice his art while competing with others.

We moved to Spain, near Madrid, for a year. This was a very enriching period for me, which permitted me to assimilate the new artistic tendencies, and to develop my own style accordingly. We lived in Ronda de Malaga, a Southern town with characteristics of the Andalusian countryside. Hemmingway’s ashes were spread from its cliffs. It is also known as ‘Carmen’s’ town and the birthplace of bullfighting. In 1993, our daughter Olga was born there, in a house surrounded by fields.

We returned to France in 1994, and I was awarded the Prix de la Fondation Wildenstein. We moved to an old dilapidated house in a small village not far from Paris. The surrounding landscapes were a great source of inspiration.

In 1997, we moved to Louveciennes, to a house from the early 19^th Century. It is surrounded by a small romantic garden with a palm tree, and an enormous ancient oak tree with a spring at its base. We completely restored it by ourselves and built a studio, where my wife and I work. Marie-Anne creates special marble papers for ancient manuscript binding and book restoration.

Though it is only ten miles outside of Paris, this small village, located between the Seine River and the forest, has preserved its charm and has not changed much since most great Impressionist painters lived and worked there. Among them were Monet (who resided in Bougival, the neighboring village), Renoir (and his parents), Sisley (who immortalized Louveciennes with his famous snow scenes), Pissarro (who fled from the Prussian invasion in 1870 to seek refuge in London with his family, and abandoned nearly 1,500 works, which were eventually stolen or destroyed), Cézanne (who came to paint several works on canvas), and finally Degas (who did not paint its countryside, but was undoubtedly inspired by the village’s laundering and ironing women, since he created many celebrated works on the subject). No doubt, Louveciennes is the cradle of Impressionism! Half a century later, the ‘Fauves’, Vlaminck and Derain, visited and created famous works. Other artists have lived there since, including the composer, Camille Saint-Saens and the American writer, Anaïs Nin. I enjoy living in this area, which is full of history, and I am happy to profit from the bright light that is so particular to the Ile de France.

I will now speak to you about Painting. The artist to whom I shall always be unconditionally faithful is Vélazquez. He is "the master of all painters". The recent discovery of one of his works at the Prado in Madrid was a great surprise to me. I learn from him constantly. Of course, I love other artists, such as Vermeer, Titien, and more recent ones like Courbet, Corot and the Englishman, Constable. Currently, Lucien Freud and Antonio Lopez Garcia are also of great interest to me, as well as Balthus who just passed away.

Although I do not fish, I use a fisherman’s philosophy to express my feelings about Art: “If one wants to toss the hook far ahead, one must first throw the line far behind.” Otherwise said, without being nostalgic, the more a contemporary artist knows about the past, the more apt he or she will be to solve questions about contemporary art. I think that painting addresses everyone and this is precisely why I think that it should be created with reflection. Thus, I attach great importance to the development of each work. The latter must be simultaneously full of force and delicacy.

My favorite subjects are landscapes. I am fascinated with the infinite combinations nature offers, which make it a great mystery. All is in order and in its place. I only wish that I could come close to doing what nature does, with my brushes. I paint with oil. It is a noble medium with endless possibilities. I like alchemy, the equivalent of cooking in painting (in fact, I love to cook and eat!).

Painting must be a generous act stemming from the heart. I often place myself in a receiver mode and force myself to question reality. It enriches me and I try to convey a bit of its beauty. My canvases are vehicles to formulate emotions that everyone can feel.

André Boubounelle