After having worked with cotton canvas, paper, or wood, Lancelot Blondeel is now exploring a new painting support by choosing transparent canvas. This material choice, both technical and conceptual, opens a field of experimentation in which light—an integral part of the work—enriches the dimensions traditionally addressed in painting. The transparent canvas allows light rays to circulate; they pass through the areas of color, reflect, and diffuse. This dynamic reveals the many behaviors of light, whereas opaque supports—especially dark tones—tend to close the surface and make it denser. The combination of this support with acrylic paint, whose translucent properties are fully exploited, generates vibrations of great presence. Ultramarine blue pigment, the keystone of the series, is thus revealed in all its strength and character. A certain tension manifests within the composition: while the gesture emerging in the works is marked by spontaneity, the balance of the composition proves to be deliberate, conceived, and considered. Thus, the impastos, the splatters, the thickness of the strokes, the dialogue with the background, and the choice of colors are all studied and controlled. Conversely, the gestural work—an almost instantaneous physical emanation—is the result of instinctive and unconscious bodily expression. This repeated gesture, perfected over the years, becomes a form of corporeal language unique to the artist.

Lancelot Blondeel

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Lancelot Blondeel is a contemporary painter born in 1988. Trained as an engineer, he now works in Fontenay-sous-Bois, near Paris. The artist develops a gestural approach, creating paintings conceived in relation to movement. Through his practice, he builds a memory of gesture, leaving imprints and furrows on the surface. These singular traces are revealed through the combination of complementary materials: transparent matter, paper, and cotton canvas. Giving particular importance to the circulation of light through his works, the artist questions the way reality presents itself, exploring the mechanics of the senses and perception. From the trace of the body: 'a memory of gesture' to a reflection on the nature of the real, he engages in a reflexive stance that questions our modes of presence in the world.