Fil d’Ariane (2016) Painting by Stephane Blanchard

Abstraction is Blanchard's form of expression, a way for him to discover his inner self, his "window on the infinite" as he likes to call it. Born in Poitiers, in 1967, Blanchard attended the Fine Arts Academy where his first influence was the Italian Renaissance.

After years of learning the meticulous technique of frescoes and extensive travels to Paris, London, and Canada, he arrived in San Francisco, one of the few truly international cities in the United States, in 1997. In this melting-pot of cultures, the Asian and Latin components became a source of inspiration for Blanchard on a professional and personal level.
The fusion of these two influences with his early training is what defines Blanchard's work today. Blanchard's hyper-realism technique is a way for him to create forms that are both light and dense, as well as harmonious and penetrating. The search for volumes that absorb themselves is at the core of the artist's work.

Now back in France where he lives in Nice with his Italian girlfriend and their two year-old daughter, the artist wants to show his relation with time that goes by and escapes him. He also wants to capture the light and make it an essential part of his paintings by adding alterations and the color red, which for Blanchard symbolizes life itself.
How to materialize the invisible? How to answer with forms, colors and images? These are questions Blanchard constantly deals with in his paintings.
The artist has his own vision, made of harmony, distance and elegance. No touch of color, light or substance is added at random on the canvas. His work evokes wide open spaces, the infinite, audacity... and leaves you free to imagine what you want.

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1967
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary French Artists