PHILIPPE CHARLES JACQUET | un temps arrêté

“It is more than a solitude, it is more than a night. For each solitude has its own mystery.”

— Sully Prudhomme

Peering into the world that Jacquet produces is like looking into a world that doesn’t quite exist. It is beautiful and dreamy, it is everything that you could ever want. But it is teetering on the edge of reality.
Jacquet is able to create places that question the viewer’s place in the world and what they are doing. It is “a universe lying somewhere between fantasy and reality” with a “very particular atmosphere.”

“When you look at the sky at night, since I will live in one of them, since I will laugh in one of them, then for you it will be as if all the stars were laughing. You will have stars that know how to laugh”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Jacquet works in gloss paint and is self taught. He paints seascapes and landscapes. His process allows him to develop texture in certain parts of the paintings while keeping others entirely smooth.

Philippe Charles Jacquet was born in France in 1957. He has since remained a resident of France. Jacquet went to school for architecture and was a practicing architect for twenty years. He also managed a gallery for ten year, but now his days are devoted to his paintings.

Jacquet currently lives and works in Pantin, just outside of Paris, and he exhibits in group and solo shows throughout France.

Jacquet's solo exhibition, "un temps arrêté" opens at M Fine Arts Galerie the First Friday of May. May 5th from 6-8pm.  Please rsvp info@mfinearts.com

BRIAN KEITH STEPHENS | Party Animals

Brian Keith Stephens is a well known oil painter and installation artist whose work affects perception of identity through emotion. Stephen’s artistic process reflects the emotions he hopes to extract from his audience. While Stephens paints seemingly simple images of animals or loved ones, upon closer observation it is clear there are multiple layers of sensitive investigation in each piece.

Turn it Up, oil on canvas 51" x 77"

Stephens was raised in Connecticut and uses his artwork to express his “fascinations with myth, the spectrum of human passion, our kinship to the spirit of the wild animal, and challenge of balancing the real with the fanciful.” He believes we must all focus on the past, present, and future in order to remain balanced in time.

Stephens work has always had a focus on the element of time and memory, asking questions such as “Do you want to be a boy or a girl? or “Are you happy with a smile?”. His newest collection works are equally as provocative using more animalistic subject matter and vibrant color.

His show Party Animals invites the viewer to use their imagination and step inside these vibrant and positive paintings to consider the life of each beast portrayed. The paintings exude bright energy and great possibility, providing the perfect portal for fantasy and curiosity.

You are My King, oil on canvas 14" x 16"

Stephens received his BFA from Lyme Academy College of Fine Art and his MFA from City College of New York. He has exhibited in galleries around the country and internationally. He has participated in multiple art fairs such as Scope Art Fair and Affordable Art Fair.

History Makes Us Believe, oil on canvas 35" x 48"

His show will be at M Fine arts from April 7 – April 30, 2017. There will be an artist reception on April 7th from 6-8 pm.

Artist, Brian Keith Stephens

M Fine Arts Galerie is located at 450 Harrison Ave. 61 Thayer St., Boston.

For more information on the artist, visit www.mfinearts.com

Text by Margaret Britven

KIM SOBEL | Walking the Wall

The last few weeks at M Fine Arts has been filled with color and enthusiasm, thanks to Kim Sobel’s paintings and cutouts. I have had the pleasure of assisting her throughout her installation process.

I have learned that installing site specific work can be a long process. A great amount of planning and preparation is necessary. However, the excitement that comes from the end result is well worth the effort.

I first met Kim in January to plan the show. She came with plans for collaboration for the installation of her cutouts and paintings. Kim currently lives in Connecticut. While she was raised in Vermont, and has shown in New York and internationally, her work is inspired by the “shifting elements of nature that she has rediscovered upon settling in the country.”

Kim is an incredibly vibrant person, her installations not only reflect how she feels as an artist, but also how she approaches life. Her energy and excitement for possibility was hard to resist and cannot be ignored in her work. In short, working with Kim was a delight; her passion for life shines through her personality and through her work.

By: Margaret Britven, Installation Coordinator, M Galerie

MICHEL DELACROIX

“I just close my eyes for a second and I see all the past looking back.”

— Michel Delacroix

The artist discovered his signature ‘naif’ style at the age of 35. He began painting at the young age of seven, and experimented with many types of painting before perfecting his poetic and evocative style. Delacroix says “it was as if there was a door. I opened it and there was a rush – something rushed out. I can still hear the noise of the horses on the cobblestones.” Delacroix’s works impart visions of Paris, however, he does not generally paint ‘en plein air.’ His works are modified by mood and memory rather than observation. Similarly, his color palette is not inspired by nature and reality but by atmosphere and emotion. The scenes are recalled from the Paris he once knew; when he saw the city occupied during the Second World War. Rather than see the dark streets of Paris, lacking automobiles and streetlights, he saw it as a “magical theater.”

Rouge et bleu, acrylic on board, 4 3/4" x 6 1/2"

While he does depict the Paris that he recalls, he also invites the viewer to participate in the scenes by attaching their own associations to the image. Each image, although reminiscent in itself, invites the viewer to assign their own memories of the Paris they love. “His faces are made deliberately bland, even blank, as they gaze out at observers from the toy-like bistro tables, as they might in some old family album that once revealed the precisely articulated features of parents and grandparents, frozen for the slow speeds of the bulky cameras of their day.”

Delacroix splits his time between Paris and Cambodia. He paints in his studio each morning and gardens each afternoon. He focuses on his family, and they continue to be the driving force in his life. Delacroix’s work has been exhibited in over 300 solo shows in the U.S. and abroad.

Delacroix’s show is currently on exhibit at M Fine Arts through December.

To learn more about Michel Delacroix’s work visit his artist profile.

Text by Margaret Britven