Théophile Delaine is a contemporary artist, born in 1969 in Champagne, whose creative journey has been deeply influenced by a lifelong quest for escape and freedom. From his earliest memories, Delaine's parents instilled in him a sense of wanderlust, traversing countries in their Volkswagen minibus, from Greece to northern Africa, Afghanistan, and Nepal. These formative experiences left an indelible mark on Delaine, igniting within him a perpetual desire to explore new horizons and express his innermost thoughts through art.
At the age of 19, Delaine ventured to Paris to pursue studies in music at the University of Paris VIII and the conservatory. It was during this time that he discovered the world of visual arts and contemporary art in the capital, leading him to embark on a journey of self-discovery through painting and sculpture. While maintaining a passion for music, particularly the double bass, Delaine gradually found himself drawn more towards the realm of visual expression, experimenting with various techniques and mediums to hone his craft.
By the age of 23, Delaine fully immersed himself in the world of painting, diligently refining his technique and exploring diverse artistic styles, from figurative to abstract. A move to Crete at 26 provided him with the opportunity to further delve into his artistic pursuits, capturing the essence of the mountains and the surrounding landscapes in his portraits. It was during this period that Delaine's quest for freedom found its visual expression, inspired by the works of artists such as Paul Rebeyrolles, Van Gogh, and ultimately, Zao Wou Ki.
Upon reaching 30 years of age, Delaine settled in Limousin, establishing a small workshop where he dedicated himself wholeheartedly to his art. His commitment bore fruit as he began to sell his paintings, embarked on formal studies in plastic arts to deepen his theoretical understanding, and organized his inaugural solo exhibition. Yet, for Delaine, true freedom transcended mere artistic expression; it had to be lived and experienced firsthand.
In 2004, Delaine embarked on a new chapter of his artistic journey, expatriating to Madagascar, where he found fertile ground for the development of his unique abstract style. Over the years, he exhibited his work extensively across the island, delving into the mysteries of existence and humanity's origins through his art.
At the age of 46, Delaine relocated once more, this time to Reunion Island, where he continues to draw inspiration from the island's natural beauty and serenity. Surrounded by mountains and immersed in nature, Delaine's artistic vision has matured, as he navigates the delicate balance between abstraction and figuration, creating evocative paintings that reflect his profound exploration of the human experience.
Entre-Deux, La Réunion
https://www.facebook.com/events/980796773018584/
The painting "Ataraxie ou la désinvolture du temps" will be auctioned from April 8 to 21 on the Artprice website.
Auction
Pour le week-end du 4 décembre, j'ouvre les portes de mon atelier. Si vous désirez voir les tableaux grandeur nature ou me poser des questions, c'est le moment!
https://fb.me/e/1mELyNMgq
Hello! In order to have another point of view of the artworks, videos have been added on the following works:
The blossom of hope and breaking
The indifference of the fireflies
Untie
See you soon!
I offer a small retrospective of five years of painting through three series, "The song of the world", The spirit of the island "and" Voyage ". Forty six paintings, all together in a personalized virtual museum. you in full screen, use the "arrows" and the mouse, click on the fabrics and good exhibition!
https://www.artsteps.com/view/5ecaa01dfbf64b58219b3f7a
Launched in 2016, the series "The spirit of the island" is a series dedicated to the mysteries of the varied landscapes of Reunion Island. Where the ocean rubs the rugged mountains and wild circuses and its volcano, the walks are not only the activity of the body but captivate the mind. Opus I has just been slightly modified and then photographed in better resolution;
https://www.artmajeur.com/en/theophile-delaine/artworks/6479/the-spirit-of-the-island-opus-i
Almost four years ago, I took up the brushes after a long absence. The only one I have had ever in this metier. I left the sketches as they were. Some paintings, still ready to be made, had remained in my mind, out of time. Even the ideas drifted gently in this ether of patience.
I tried sometimes to get back to it, put a canvas on the easel, prepared the paintings, brushes, but nothing helped. I did not start. I could not bring myself to draw the first line.
Seven years of reflexion, meditation, observation and contemplation have been right in my last chains. So, when I came back, I painted this canvas that had been waiting for me.
From that moment on, I began to paint again, without constraint, without effort, with ease and amusement that disconcerted me, a real walk.
"Freedom guides us" oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, 50 x 40 cm, 50 x 40 cm, (2015)
The comment of its owner:
"I took some time to grasp (but did I grasp?) the complexity of a deliberately unfinished painting for the witness that we are - because symmetrically uncompleted - which can not be since it is deliberately unfinished it is first finished!
The paradox does not stop there, it is in the very freedom that faces us and which, while we are looking for its absent face, flees us suddenly to rush towards the horizon of the emphatic approach of weightlessness.
Does she face us? She is conquered; is she running away? She is playing!
The title of the painting is also not ingenuous: "Freedom guides us" is also a paradox - how, indeed, could a free being be guided (would it be by freedom itself!) without to be immediately insane? Can we then think of the problem of freedom and its antinomy (determinism and free will) with more than lightness, even derision? Can we finally get rid of this eternal question, simply by tending to a necessary joy, in the manner of Spinoza and as the painting suggests? But that's another question that comes up..."
"Nature is a temple where living pillarsLet escape sometimes confused words ... " Charles Baudelaire "Correspondences"
We are often asked what our artistic approach is. For the contests, registration on professional websites, galleries, etc. Here is mine, updated on 28/04/2019:
We only paint what we are, what we live, and even more so what we can see and what we feel.
What is a graphic work but an entanglement of shapes and colors? Colors whose codes and semantic fields are culturally established but have their own energy and their specific effect on all of us.
It is the same for the shapes of which one knows to recognize the softness, the violence, or the movement. Colors and shapes that impress their mark according to their complexity and their arrangement, express then the balance or the imbalance, the anguish, the pleasure or the joy, etc.
Following the lead of Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and also Zao Wou-Ki and Gao Xingjian, I try to explore the intrinsic language of the world that we are given to perceive in his extraordinary variety.
Through all the shapes and colors existing in nature, i try to decipher the messages, the vibratory language, by using them as a pure mode of expression, beyond the symbolic, beyond what is recognizable as an object, beyond words, beyond what we can see.
I paint the world as i perceive it in its mystery.
Each of my paintings is a representation of the questions I ask myself, doubts and discoveries, a slice of the experience of my feelings, a graphic interrogation of our existence and our essence.These are snapshots of my soul.
They are therefore inseparable from my personal adventure.They line up in the manner of a photo album my spiritual and philosophical journey. They are so many pictures that allow me to become aware of what I live, of what we live deep within ourselves and can sometimes be discover a parcel of answer in their just realization.
Over time, subjects and meaning become clearer, become aware, I do not put my titles to chance even if they may seem fanciful to some.
To conclude, I would say that aesthetics can be studied in another way than on the basis of an opposition between objectivity and subjectivity. It is rather a kind of energetic interactivity between the object looked at and the one that looks, linked at first to the shape and the color, but also to the sounds and any other form of sensory perception.
This energy perceived passively by the gaze is transformed very quickly into another, according to the disposition and the nature of the one who looks. His feeling of beauty - if there is a feeling- will determine the watcher to become an actor, he will then project in turn an energy that will come back to him to infinity.
