CHRISTOPHE CUSSON

My Painting

- Artist's statement -

"It is now over 50 years since I first chose oils as my medium, not only for their obvious illustrative qualities, their purity and the variety of their pigments, but also for the versatility they offer through varying the drying times of the superposed layers of paint.

I first studied painting in figurative classes before turning naturally towards abstract art. I was astonished to find the same references, criteria and harmonies at work there.

My painting is to no degree an attempt at social commentary, as is customary these days. Instead, it is first and foremost an intimate expression of intangible things, such as the energy that drives our world, with an aesthetic attention to links and frequencies that bear little or no relation to mathematics or (celestial) / academic geometry.

In general, the role of painting is to translate the beauty we find around us, whether material or abstract, visible or invisible, tangible or intangible.

Beauty can be found in everything, therefore everything is "good" to paint. What is beauty if not a law of mathematics, a frequency, a ratio between two proportions, colors or lines, a ratio that allows us to understand the law of the Unique Being through the harmonious combination of two different elements? In this way, my painting is the expression of my quest for spiritual harmony.

Subjects occur to me naturally, not through an intellectual process of research but rather through visions resulting from moments of intense contemplation or periods of meditation. Then, I seek my path in curves and colors, in rhythm and form. My painting is not intellectual. How could it be? By appealing to the eye and the heart of the viewer, it should both calm him (or her) and take him (or her) on a journey.

My paintings are not destined to be viewed quickly, as in a museum, but to be lived with, changing as they do with the light, the time of day and the atmosphere of their surroundings. 'Painting is learned in museums', said Pierre Auguste Renoir, 'but is appreciated in the intimacy of the eye.' My painting is deeply personal and intimate. It aims to capture the eye in order to touch the innermost soul of the viewer, accompanying him on our joint quest.

So, as I like to tell people who do me the honor of viewing my paintings, do not seek answers to your questions, but let yourself be guided by the painting and if the guide is not good, leave him.

These lines should, I think, suffice, to enlighten those who would like to get to know my painting, but they cannot replace viewing the paintings themselves."

Christophe Cusson