Hervé Maury

Herve grew up in the Southern Mediterranean region and nothing predestined him for an artistic career. He began his working life rather chaotically and carried out various professions before working in metallurgy for 8 years. It was only by chance that he began to paint. After moving and decorating his new apartment, he looked for art based on animals, but in finding none, he began creating and decorating the walls with his own paintings. His family then discovered his talent and encouraged him to become an artist.
Various meetings and collaborations with decoration businesses gave Hervé the opportunity to paint freely and exhibit for the first time. In contributing to another artist’s ceramics work, Hervé was convinced that he had to embark on an artistic career.
More fabulist than naturist, Hervé endows his animal characters with complexity, as he transforms the bestiary inherited from the medieval tradition, rock paintings and Far Eastern Art. Initially fascinated only by insects, today he also paints giraffes herds, schools of fish and portraits of mice.
He begins his works with sand and a palette of pigments on brown paper and linen canvas. He then refines the work using gouache, Indian ink and sometimes charcoal. As he works he diversifies his materials, even to the point of incorporating ashes or marble.
Hervé enjoys this diversity, which enriches the colors, tones and effects. Throughout the evolution of his work, one constant remains: the natural tones which the artist keeps from the original use of sand. The animals seem to emerge from the earth and are surprised that they are being watched.
Hervé finds in these beings all the moods and feelings that he wishes to express and share with humor.