Thomas Meillet

Born in 1988 in Audincourt in the Doubs, Thomas Meillet is a self-taught painter.

As a shy child, he likes to take refuge in drawing, for him it is a means of expression as he feels different from other children, on the sidelines. As an adult, he qualifies his relationship with society as an incompatibility with 50% shared wrongs. However, he manages to adapt to the codes of society through a benevolent education and a happy childhood where his parents allow him the possibility of expressing himself in his own way, not seeking to curb his authenticity.

His school career is flawless. Following his bachelor's degree, he began studying at the faculty of sport in Besançon, but he no longer found his place and did not project himself into the profession of sports teacher, he described this exercise as a role to play, as a lack of authenticity that it needs to flourish.

Thomas then decides to change paths, and, after passing the entrance test, he is retained at the National School of Architecture in Lyon. He is starting his first year, and his classes allow him to discover and be aware of art. During his course, he meets artists, discovers the daily life of this life which he describes as a “dream" but leaves this dream dormant in order to stay in tune with the reality of society.

Thomas' life changes after a stint in a psychiatric hospital following what he would describe as “going off the road", a burn-out both professional and personal. This event nevertheless allows him to heighten his sensitivity to art, to see the world differently.

He then tries despite everything to resume his studies, but his vision of things has changed since his hospitalization. The world no longer looks at him the same, and he too sees it differently. This is where he begins to draw, to create. It is an outlet, a way to communicate differently, to leave a little more room for authenticity and creativity and less for pragmatism.

The disease was a driving force in his personal and artistic development, he began in 2013 a long period of “underground" creation, without daring to exhibit his work, without showing it. Until 2019, he painted in the shadows.

But Thomas does not stop at drawing, whether figurative or abstract. He also likes to work with various materials (wood, cement, clay, metal, etc.) His grandfather, a carpenter by trade, transmitted this passion to him. He decides to start a training in the field of layout carpentry, but he does not find it. It was then, in 2019, that he made the choice to start as a painter and make it his main activity. His first exhibitions, his first sales and the first convincing and encouraging feedback on his work will follow.

« My art could be described as esoteric writing, these signs which, once together, and according to a multitude of possibilities, give an energy, electric sometimes, other times which could look like a vortex, an infinity of thoughts, what either way, the energy that emanates from it is striking. The signs challenge, interrogate… according to the evolution of energies, the signs, the forms move, leaving room for emptiness. »