The painter
Luc Andrieux
His vocation
Creating, imagining and inventing have always been a matter of course for Luc Andrieux, whether drawing, painting, writing or composing. He began drawing at the age of 8, copying characters from a book on pencil drawing. Then came his first comic strip creations at the age of 12, followed by illustration and graphic design.
But painting has always been in the back of his mind, and his motivation to take the plunge has evolved slowly and surely, fueled over the years by a growing certainty that he is a painter. The desire to paint, nurtured by the works of the old, modern and contemporary masters, finally blossomed over 25 years ago, to culminate today in an assertive painting, guided by the vision of a transcended reality.
His vision
Luc Andrieux is a contemporary French artist whose work is deeply rooted in the realm of the image, with painting having a special significance for him. He considers painting to be the quintessence of art, a path that establishes a direct link with the spiritual essence inherent in nature. For Andrieux, painting transcends simple understanding, speaking directly to the viewer’s intuition and bypassing rational thought.
In his creations, Andrieux strives to reveal profound truths that challenge the spirit. Through the harmonious convergence of color, light and texture in his landscapes, he aims to evoke a sense of liberation and escape, harnessing the desire for an idealized, dreamlike realm. At the heart of Andrieux’s artistic vision is the desire to evoke a deep attraction to nature, the enigmatic and the mystical. He sees nature as imbued with symbolic meaning, representing a sacred realm that transcends its materiality and resonates with the deepest aspects of human consciousness. Through his explorations, ranging from abstract to more concrete representations, he seeks to depict the complex relationship between humanity and the natural world, capturing the ephemeral nuances of existence. His paintings embody the duality of human interaction with nature, simultaneously bridging and delineating the divide between the two realms.
Andrieux’s ultimate aim is to incite his audience to contemplation and introspection, freezing moments in time and evoking atmospheres imbued with the hidden essence of the elements. Even in urban landscapes, he strives to convey a sense of natural wonder, transforming mundane settings into sites of transcendence.
Above all, Andrieux believes in the transformative power of art, aspiring to enrich viewers’ lives by imbuing his paintings with an emotional resonance that elevates their perceptual experience. Through his evocative works, he seeks to awaken a deeper appreciation of the beauty and mystery inherent in the world around us.
His technic
Luc Andrieux mainly paints with acrylic paste, which he reinforces or dilutes with various mediums such as structural gel for textural effects and glazing medium for transparent effects. He also uses water for watercolor effects and washes, more conducive to ethereal atmospheres. On the same canvas, he alternates and mixes several processes, from fading to superimposing opaque and transparent layers to obtain different color transition effects. He achieves light effects with two techniques, either by adding more or less opaque white paint, or by letting the background of the canvas appear. He sometimes uses liquid acrylic airbrush inks to enrich the palette of transparency effects.
Acrylics allow him to work quickly and nervously, responding better to his natural impatience, so he can paint more impulsively, less thoughtfully. In addition, the rapid drying time allows him to touch up flaws quickly, but he avoids this step as much as possible so as not to break the unity of style created by random but controlled brushstrokes.
When an image requires more complex, finer fades, oil is the natural choice. This slower approach sometimes requires him to resort to a few preliminary pencil lines, but this remains fairly rare. As with acrylics, he uses a variety of impasto and dilution media, depending on the desired effect. As the drying time is too long for him, he works in the thinnest possible layers to blend the colors on the canvas, enabling him to rework transition zones without the risk of getting bogged down in too much material. As glazes are more difficult to achieve due to the long waiting time between coats, he doesn’t hesitate to add a good quantity of drying medium to the paint, which considerably speeds up drying time. He can then apply transparent coats of color much sooner, with or without glazing medium.
Among the tools he uses, the Raphael brand Kaerell spalter is his instrument of choice, its nervous suppleness offering him a wide range of brushstrokes. He prefers brushes to round brushes, which forces him to be less precise, less realistic. He uses the knife mainly for effects of matter and opaque light.
When he approaches a blank canvas, he spends some time contemplating it, projecting onto the surface a vague image of what he feels. He starts with an overall mood for the colors and a barely sketched image for the general composition. As soon as it’s time to act, he arranges the colors on the palette, then mixes and applies them directly to the canvas.
His rating
Its current price is €1,200.00 for a 100×100 cm format. It has been established and certified in close collaboration with Akoun, the world’s leading authority on art market information. Since 2020, Luc Andrieux’s inclusion in the prestigious Akoun ranking testifies to the recognition of his work in the contemporary art world.
Thanks to his high standards of his art, he expands his field of action and continues his progress towards ever greater notoriety.
