Eric Le Pape

“To deal with the sea directly… it is very healthy for the body, for the mind and for the paintings.” Marin Marie (marine painter and great navigator). It is with this quote from Marin Marie, at the end of his solo Atlantic crossing in 1933, that I would like to introduce myself because it seems to me to reflect perfectly my career as a sailor and painter since always. “Dealing with the sea directly…” Indeed, I was immersed in color from an early age, my feet in seaweed and my hands free to treat ultramarine blues with sharp knives, largely loaded with material. and ceruleum. My palette thus quickly expressed the colors of the sea, it is very naturally and thanks to this desire not to leave this environment that I headed towards a maritime career within the French Navy. A petty officer in naval aeronautics for nearly 25 years, today I have a career as an artist painter that goes beyond the borders of my native Brittany. "… It's very healthy for the body, for the mind and for the paintings" My job as a sailor has allowed me to refine and make my paintings more true. Throughout my career, I have been able to use my visual acuity, my freedom of interpretation and my inspiration during my many travels and affections, maritime in this case. My wish, now, is to take advantage of this chance to reverse the direction of my commitment by building on the bases of my profession, my artistic career for the benefit of the sea and its sailors ... In a technique where the role of drawing is reduced, I concentrate on the essentials. The spontaneity of my gesture follows the sharpness of my gaze. I structure the masses, then I refine the details, using the diversity of shapes and the touch of the knife. My painting becomes sculpture. My colorful and emotional works are a reflection of my passion for Brittany and in particular my favorite places and inspiration which are the bay of Morlaix, Carantec or Pont-Aven and its abers. The small calm ports where the boats are reflected in soft or strong shadows, the bays, the estuaries are treated with great blows of knives, largely loaded with matter. And then there is the sea, in which sometimes still ripples a remnant of swell where the wind quivers.