Drawing. As long as I can remember I have liked to draw. I love the way a few lines can bring life to a blank sheet of paper. Drawing to me is a medium in itself. While being sensitive, it also has a versatility of its own. It doesn't compete with painting. Movement, light and life of a subject can be captured fairly quickly with drawing. It is the core, the structure, the birth and the strength of any painting. While studying my subject, with drawing after drawing, each will reflect on how far the painting will go and how good the painting will be. Drawings not only help my paintings, they define them. However, it is also true that my paintings in turn help my drawings. I find myself combining the two, more and more often. I would like to draw like I paint and paint like I draw. Although the line between the two is getting smaller, they both have their own identity.

The two drawings are of my dear model Ophelia . They are part of a series of work inspired from a day that I spent with her on her island farm.

She is such an incredible person and a great source of inspiration. She has been crabbing, fishing and farming her entire life. I simply like to draw her and paint her in her every day routine without having to force or invent anything.

Meeting Ophelia was the beginning of a great journey into her life on Long Island, Bahamas, a wild world, which was once unknown to me. She is in harmony with her environment and she is proud to not only share with me but also to teach me the tasks at hand. As I watch her, I try to melt into the background while imprinting the images, thoughts and emotions into my mind.

It has been an incredibly different and humbling experience.

born:1957, France

selected solo or two-person exhibits

"Crabbing witn Ophelia" Paradise Island Bahamas 2009
Princess Street Gallery Harbor island Bahamas 2005
Princees Street Gallery Lyford cay Bahamas 2004