Marc Padeu: Le baptême de Roxane

I want to paint the everyday life of the people around me, my family and friends. Since we all live together, I share their moments of joy, but also their sadness. Not everything is perfect, there are many difficulties. However, I don't feel obsessed with simply showing this state of affairs. When I manage to capture a moment of joy, a slice of happiness, it is just as perfect. In a way, painting their lives allows me to talk about my own life. I can't work without historical and religious references in my painting. History is my passion and religious belief has always been very present around me.

 

The baptism of Roxane highlights a baptism ceremony as it appears in my own mind. The different scenes of the paintings are made up of my childhood memories in church and the holy images that decorated the family home, but also of a few lines of holy writing that I was able to read at the time when I was learning about christianity. However, it may happen that in a project like this, the theoretical basis only serves as a pretext for greater exploration of the practical notions of painting. With a completely different perspective, we would then see more of the efforts made to represent in the most faithful way possible the draping of the clothing, the gestures as well as the expressions on the faces through the work of the portrait. The treatment of shadows and lights, the search for depth in the works through landscape work which simultaneously includes a quest for transparency and mirror effect through the work of the river water. 

 

- Marc Padeu