For as far as I can remember, drawing, painting and aviation have always been intertwined. Enthusiasm and luck made my childhood flying dreams come true and they are now what’s leading my paint brushes.
During my professional life as a pilot I have had the opportunity to fly lots of wonderful airplanes : first in the French Navy flying a Fouga Magister, then a T 33, then an Etendard IV and finally the famous F8 Crusader on aircraft carriers, then later on with Air France as a copilot, and eventually as Captain, on several beautiful liners. Among them the mighty Boeing 747 and its worthy twin-engine successor, the Boeing 777. Light aircrafts  on wheels has also been part of my “flying” life but it was definitely not enough : soon I decided that flying floatplanes couldn't hurt either, so I ended up flying Piper Cubs and Supercubs, Beavers and other Cessnas, all on floats, most of the time in Canada... Pure joy !!

During these 50 years of flying pencil/pen drawing and gouache/oil painting were also a part of my life. I got interested in oil painting around 15 years ago, starting off very slowly on a self study basis – the long haul flying lifestyle not exactly making it easy for me to really get into. After a while though, realising the extent of my incompetence, I understood that I had to find a proper teacher. A friend of mine, renown aviation artist Lucio Perinotto, recommended I meet one of his friends, Stéphane Ruais (also an official Aviation and Navy painter). Stéphane is more than a teacher, I would say he is a "Master" of light in oil painting. His demanding approach to teaching, his technique, his criticism and his patience made me discover the pleasures of oil painting which is now my favourite medium. 

Inspiration is often drawn from flight memories, encounters with pilots, aviation enthusiasts and historical events (ex. the big flying boats era). When composing I love putting the aircrafts in their natural environments, surrounding them with various types of skies, clouds and beautiful landscapes, sometimes even placing them in precise historical contexts. Then it’s a case of finding the best position and angle for a given aircraft, and, most important of all, finding the right light to create the desired atmosphere for the painting... What a challenge!
Among my favourite French Aviation Artists Lucio Perinotto and Stéphane Ruais are at the top of the podium. My numerous flights to the USA and the 10 years I spent in London with my family also led me to be very influenced by English and American Aviation Artists. Among them Frank Wootton, John Young, Robert Taylor, Mickael Turner and RG Smith are some of my absolute favourites...
 

With Stéphane Ruais I also discovered how to paint outdoors under tight time constraints. Painting landscapes "on the spot" requires rigorous technique as you only have a very short amount of time to capture the light and the contrasts. You must make sure your painting is simpler to get the intended results. This rather tricky approach to painting has taught me a lot and has had me reassessing my work each time I’d come home from a session to sit in front of my easel.

Painting is for me a way of conveying my passion for the world of Aviation. One could think that Aviation is a world of technics and procedures but painting can reveal the poetry of flying when the light reflects on the shapes of a wing or a fuselage, or sculpts the shapes of the clouds. It’s a world where human beings live out their passion.

                                                                                                          Sainte Foy-Lès-Lyon, France, December 2023