Pascal Poutchnine

I live and paint in the Vallée de Chevreuse, south of Paris. I'm self-taught and my passion for artistic creation goes back to the 80s, right from the start of my professional career, which was not related to the art world. I was called upon to create slide shows and brochures as part of my work and I soon realized that for me, form was at least as essential as content, and I devoted a lot of energy to ensuring that the final medium, whatever it was, would attract attention through its optimal radiance and be "beautiful", at least in my eyes. At the same time, two main themes quickly emerged in what I'll call the gestation of my creative urge, shaped over the years first by my summer vacations, then later by my travels: the Mediterranean rim, and in France Provence, and what I globally refer to as the "tropics", and in particular the flora and fauna, with the necessary imagination, as I in no way claim or wish to approach hyperrealism. So, in the early 90s, I started drawing still lifes and landscapes in small format with colored pencils. Then, during a summer holiday, I felt a creative urge to stop and look at the paintings on display by a local artist, Benjamin, in the port of Saint-Tropez. So I started painting a few small formats and then, in 1995, embarked on the creation of a larger format, which remained unfinished until 2020, caught up in professional and family life. It was then, thanks to a growing sense of freedom, that an irrepressible urge led me to pick up my brushes again and finish this painting, then along the way to create others from the same source of inspiration. Since then, I've been using a mixed technique combining classic acrylic paint with POSCA-type markers. This gives me a wide choice of colors, while maintaining the finesse of my strokes. I bring to life scenes that are half dreamlike, half realistic, half naïve, always with a palette of very bright, often very warm, colors. It was at this time that, while chatting after a play at the Marcel Pagnol cultural center in Bures-sur-Yvette, in the Vallée de Chevreuse, I mentioned my passion to the person in charge of the cultural center and, after seeing my first creations, she suggested that I exhibit at the center the following year when I had enough paintings to show. For this occasion, I had the idea of creating a series called "Tropiques", in which my compositions would have in common the presence of at least one beautiful wild animal in the foreground, which, in my mind, fits perfectly into an imaginary jungle, and seems to fix my "oeilbjectif". This first exhibition, held in April 2023, was a great success, and all the compliments I received made me want to go further and distribute my paintings on a larger scale so that as many people as possible can enjoy them. Today, I'm exploring my second axis and starting to paint a series called "Méditerranée".