Duel, 2016

Jean-Paul Duvilliers  

Jean-Paul Duvilliers born in 1946 is a painter from the North of France. In the mid-1960s, he began to travel to Europe. Using a forgotten method: hitchhiking, he "walked" a lot in England, Germany and Italy. Then after a military service in the navy, he left for Pakistan and India for a demobilization of more than 2 years. He was influenced by the display of color in these countries. On his return, he really focused on painting, reserving himself for a daily practice, without mixing with other painters. He acquired a good technique and to participate in many exhibitions. In the Lille metropolis, it benefits from a family exhibition space to make itself known. In 1994, he took his family to live for a few years in Périgord, a rural region and place of a “strong” prehistoric past. Very impressed by this context, he became interested in primitive art. At this time, he made several trips to Asia and South America acquainting himself with ancient civilizations and their monuments. He then moved to Paris in 1997, where he currently lives and works with a view to renewing his work. About my painting: I really liked the fantastic Flemish, made of real truncated, of perfect technique. I felt its influence and assimilated it. I have always drawn, everywhere and in all possible media with the project of reproducing these drawings on the canvas. I never did it because copying, even my own sketches, is impossible for me. Likewise, I always work in different ways, not to say “styles”. However, constants appear in my painting such as the human presence, the contrasts of colors, animality, etc. The variety of possible formats also interests me because the size of the painting justifies a specific construction and therefore an additional element of the adventure . I love the "kitchen" side of the act of painting. In oil painting, there is the “oil” of the paste which is important.