Having just arrived in Rennes, I quickly took the pulse of this organic city – small enough to be affordable, large enough to offer a host of urban panoramas. From the perspective of a newcomer, I observed, for a long time, on foot, the everyday landscapes: squares, intersections, buildings… Far from the timber-framed buildings, the markets and the parks, to see “what makes a city”, to watch its heart beat. To understand its intimacy, what is never shown. Its rains. Its nights. Its asphalt. Its reflections.

It is this alphabet that writes the daily life of Rennes that I wanted to paint in a sharp, knife-like manner. Like Rennes, the lines are vivid, the colors pop, and energy bursts forth from behind the false tranquility of the wise buildings.

At the other end of Rennes, at the very end, other territories: the sea, the ocean, the harbors, the docks... always within train reach. From my platform I set off on an expedition to the port cities with the same approach: to paint the beauty of everyday life at sea, the delicate harshness of the raw port construction sites. The infinity of colors faded by the years. Machines and men, rust and definitive horizons. The majesty of sea vessels that express, in their own way, the power of the ordinary.