Jacques D'Auteuil
The Eyes of the Painter
by
Georgianna Lane, for Fine Art Registry®
The recurring themes in the work of painter Jacques D'Auteuil are amplified when meeting the artist in person. Jacques is warm but intent, the warmth and intensity spilling onto his canvases. Inquisitive eyes of a piercing blue leap out from his tanned and friendly face – like the mixed media eyes that leap out from many of his paintings, and the electric blue paint he employs as an insistent counterpoint to the more dramatic reds and golds.
Here is a painter of great energy, who is not afraid to impact the viewer, who creates works that draw one in irresistibly, even while cautioning against getting too close. Could you feel electricity running through a canvas? You believe it possible in the presence of a D'Auteuil.
Born in the Picardy region of northern France, Jacques was fascinated at an early age by the art of ancient civilizations, of Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Egypt and Greece. He studied them all, and then moved on to the European Renaissance: devouring books on sculpture, drawing and painting; visiting museums; touring galleries. And while his admiration for the artists of these genres and epochs grew, it wasn't until he discovered the painters of more recent time, from his own native France and its environs, that he felt inspired to create on canvas himself.
Says Jacques, "I admire many artists of many genres but my heart is drawn to the Impressionists, the Fauvists and the Cubists particularly. There is not one painter whom I can say influenced me, but several. Like Van Gogh, who had a strong view of his art and was pushing the envelope continuously of what he considered good painting.
"Artists like Edvard Munch, Derain, Braque, Delaunay, Monet, Renoir, Marie Cassatt and most of the Impressionists have been of inspiration to me. Each and everyone of these artists were driven by their art, they drove it and were driven by it."
One recent museum visit left a visible emotional mark on Jacques.
"Last fall when I was in Paris, I went to the Musee D'Orsay and saw there a wonderful exhibit centered around a famous art gallery owner called Vollard, who was patron to the likes of Picasso, Gauguin, Utrillo, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Braque, Bonnard, Renoir and several more. It was an incredible experience to see this special exhibit. As you walked out of the exhibit, you went through a dark room where was shown footage of Pierre Auguste Renoir painting and talking to that gallery owner and friend of his, Vollard. This footage of Renoir was extremely touching, for Renoir had arthritis and yet was still painting with brushes attached to his hand. This was very emotional for me as you could see the life glittering in Renoir's eyes and his complete control of what he was doing, despite anything."
Starting the Journey
"I started to paint in 1995 as a personal challenge that I set for myself at the time. It was a big barrier for me and I worked hard to break through it, for I knew that if I did, something very worthwhile would come out of it.
"In 1997, I sold my first painting. This was a still life that I called Still Life Not So Still. It was an Impressionist-style painting, close to Cezanne.
"I began to paint exclusively with oil. I did this for several years to the exclusion of any other medium.
"Then I tried acrylic and it took a few paintings for me to convince myself that this was a worthwhile medium for me. Acrylic has its obvious advantage: speed. That alone is very useful when you have a burning idea or concept that you want to lay on the board or canvas and see how it turns out.
"But in my view, oil does everything acrylic does, and more, and so it is my preferred medium. But I have come to use both acrylic and oil combined. For instance, I do a full painting with acrylic and then I paint over it with oil. This is something that I have experimented with for the last few paintings I have done and I don’t know how orthodox this is or if anyone else is doing it, but I find it very rewarding because it helps me bring my art to a new level. By that I mean that I do a painting and it is done. I put it up and I look at it and I then devise how I can heighten its communication or impact and that's when I use oil to now bring that painting to an even more finalized state (finalized in terms of being beyond what I had intended originally).
This experimenting with mediums is just one more way that Jacques coaxes and conjures unrestrained emotion from his paintings. "So, now what I am trying to achieve with my art is to create perennially aesthetic concepts that appeal to a maximum number of people."
Jacques has a characteristically positive and determined view of his future career.
"Like any emerging artist, I am hoping for a breakthrough in terms of sales and recognition. But I know that this will come because I work at my art with all my power and I work hard and the larger result will come. Every painting I do is bringing me closer to achieving this.
"I have a couple of exhibitions planned in the immediate future: one in the Santa Barbara area and one in the summer in France. I am right now doing a series of fourteen or fifteen paintings which have to do
with dancing. I have these paintings all started and I have them on my back easels, so to speak, for I am devising a new genre with these, and, being in the background of my atelier, I can continuously create on them while doing other paintings. I intend to exhibit these paintings as a series in one of the galleries in New York City."
Registering His Body of Work for the Future with Fine Art Registry®
Currently painting in a peaceful coastal area of California, Jacques is grateful for the advice of another Fine Art Registry member, who urged him to join right away.
"I found out about Fine Art Registry last year from a close friend and began tagging and registering my paintings immediately. So far I have registered fifteen paintings with FAR® and intend to have them all registered as soon as possible.
"The advantage the FAR system provides for me is great security. I feel my art is protected by doing so and when I sell a painting, it brings confidence to the buyer that he/she is buying an original piece. I feel good about having someone own one of my paintings and knowing it's all registered and preserved."
And while his joining FAR may have been merely serendipitous at the time, Jacques has had this concept brought home to him in a way he couldn't have foreseen at the time.
"Amazingly, I have already had an occasion where the FAR system has helped me tremendously in a dispute. A local paper published an article on my work and accidentally misquoted me as saying that one painting I sold was purchased after the buyer saw it in a gallery show. The gallery came after me as they thought I had breached an agreement and sold to the buyer on the side. I was able to prove, by FAR registration and date, that this was not the case, and that the buyer had purchased and transferred ownership of the painting many, many months after the gallery show, and in a different state altogether.
"I breathed a sigh of relief that I had registered this painting. It's all there in black and white (and color) on the secure FAR website for all to see. An affidavit showing this is absolute evidence. This problem could have tied me up in all manner of complications, possibly even legal, but it will now be dealt with efficiently and completely. All artists should take note of this and act accordingly to tag and register their work with FAR."
Jacques laughs, his French accent lending an engaging charm to his words. "That was a close call! So, I guess it's obvious I am tagging and registering all my work!"
As this interview ends, Jacques looks at a canvas, his brilliant blue eyes narrowing, seeing not just a painting alive with the colors of fire, but his long-term future as an artist. He turns and says, "I am thankful for FAR's existence. It is comforting for me as an artist and especially as an emerging artist because it creates a sense of security and preservation as well."
With that, he smiles and strides away toward the room where the fifteen canvases stand, awaiting their own sparkling life.
Jacques D'Auteuil can be reached at
And be sure to visit his FAR gallery here.
— by Georgianna Lane
|
July 3, 2008
|
Print Version - 
PDF
Discuss article | 
Print this page | 
The views and opinions of individual authors/contributors expressed on the FAR® web site do not necessarily state or reflect those views and/or opinions of Fine Art Registry® or its agents or subsidiaries.
