If Versailles was a story

If Versailles was a story… Since early childhood, a visit to the Chateau of Versailles has always been a landmark destination for visitors from far and wide. For many children, the visit of the Chateau and gardens resembled a marathon, not always considered fun. But it left me impressions that were both surrealist and full of incomprehension: this château, a home? Its overdone decoration, good taste? And yet, only a few months ago, it was “love at first sight”/ like being hit by lightening. During a visit – yet one more – my gaze was troubled in front of such a mass of material, the chateau’s patchwork of ornaments, its feast of carefully considered coordinated colors, its pompous grandeur. It is doubtless the diversity of colors, the concentration of patterns and the perfection of its contours which provoked in me the desire to relate on canvass this baroque ambiance yet so modern! For many years I sought through painting the possibility to simplify. In the series “Versailles” I also avoid detail and play with the colors and textures to recreate illusion, the dramatic effect of a universe which intrigues me still.