Are you inspired by films? If so, which ones inspire you? Is it the characters or the visual look of the film?

I am very inspired by films; both narration-wise and pictorially. I find film has an interesting format relating closely to that of a novel; fiction, characters, timewise. And, I also find to it a real painterly quality, as for the work on color, composition, etc. I am fond of many films from different times and genres, stretching from old musicals, (any Fred Astaire movies, Singing in the Rain—yes please) to blockbuster hits (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Titanic, anytime) to psychological dramas, both French and Italian new wave style, (Breathless, Blow-Up, La Notte, Mama Roma, to only name a few) to any other kind of movies, (Somewhere, Pulp Fiction, Amadeus, The Mission, Raging bull, Badlands, Kes, Sweet Sixteen, American Graffiti, the list goes on…).

Your paintings on thin plastic are very fragile, how did you decide on that medium?

I started painting on plastic dust sheets when studying at the Royal College of Arts in 2013; it was the result of an experimenting process that lead me to thrive on the static property of such a light material. It was also very cheap and allowed me to paint on a rather large scale some pictures that, once installed, would embrace a fresco quality and, once de-installed, could also be packaged in the tiniest space.

The drawings have a strong graphic outline. Why do you sometimes decide to use shadow in an area of an image?

I try to make the best decisions, composition-wise. To me, a successful image should be reaching a sense of balance, and one can achieve this playing with various parameters; contrast, shapes, colors, medium, etc.

Your parents are architects, did they encourage you and your siblings to draw from a young age?

They certainly did. They both are really good drawers, and so was my late grandfather, an architect as well, and I guess, like kids do, my siblings and I picked it up from seeing them drawing.

What music do you listen to while you draw?

Too many things to give a full list here. I do go through obsessive phases of listening to a few albums in repeat though—for instance, lately I’ve been going crazy for the last Odezenne release, “Dolziger Str. 2,” and for “Ici le Jour (a tout enseveli)” by Feu! Chatterton, two ace French bands, but to the point of getting a bit sick of them actually. Otherwise I listen to the radio a lot, music programs but also just talks on various subjects, history, documentaries on esoteric subjects, like shamanism for instance, interviews and literature being my faves.

Photography and Text by Olivia Beasley