Never I would have guessed I’d ended up fascinated by curtains. I'm not usually a fan of painting fabric for some reasons, but in this instance it felt like painting light itself. I mean, it's very much always about painting light or its absence, but the curtains seemed to reveal it, like throwing drapery over the invisible man and suddenly realise his physical presence. Whereas air felt like water, pushing through the curtains from the outside, ready to burst and overflow in the boat at any second... Yes, I did enjoy loosing myself in those thoughts as I painted!

Light has been painted more directly too. I've enjoyed catching it and its various moods throughout the day. Soft and timidly coming in through the door in the morning. Casting sharp diagonals over my kitchen in the late afternoon. Dancing with shadows around my boiler. Inspiring an overlapped self-portrait before calling it a day.

Growing a garden and welcoming little plants in my home gave me a great reason to explore painting green subject. I loved it! They're such beautiful subjects, and also quite liberating because - hopefully - likeness not being a big deal, it gives more room to design, composition, rhythm... I'd start from life, then let my heart adjust the shapes and colours, away from the original subject, to serve the painting itself.

Similarly, I tried my first plein air sketches. Timidly on the canal at first, more enthusiastically in the countryside later on. I find it hard not to get overwhelmed by open space, and most of the time I ended up painting my friends as they painted the space..!

I also had the chance to paint them, my friends, through more sustained sessions as we sat for each other. For an hour or two, reproducing a stillness close to working with models in the life room. Those sessions are always a real joy, also because we got to chat and share precious memories; but think that's ultimately what I'd love to paint is even less controlled, it's the normal life, the daily one. I'd love to paint life as I live it.

The usual self-portraits happened here and there, most of the time they're just studies, good pretexts to explore something else with the paint itself. Let it be a new palette, a different application or process.

Working with my childhood photographs was with similar intentions, of playing with colours, moods, simplification and layering.

Oh, and a little children’s book was started! I took it more like a heterogeneous portfolio than a fully coherent oeuvre, exploring various mediums and style at each page. It's not yet finished, I'll aim to take it a bit further before sharing it 'properly' with you.

What a joy it’s been to have Painting for companion ❤️
(and a Drama queen for teddy)