Smiler

Painting,  Oil on wood panel

36x28cm

Finished in a dark brown woodgrain frame

Among Jean-Luc’s influences is Victorian photography. His paintings are constructed through the processes of creation and destruction, damage and repair. Jean-Luc is obsessed with the materiality and texture of the paint itself. He embraces the transformations that take place when he is no longer a slave to the image and the painting becomes more about the paint and the surface. Inspired by the poetic beauty of darkness he tries to discover through his portrait what is on the inside, the essence of the portrait. A certain tension exists within the thick surfaces of his paintings, as paint takes precedence over representation. This creates a fantastic piece, embracing elements of Pop-art letting the inside escape the single dimension with heavy layered paint.