Hervé Hugues | Contemporary Artist: Artworks & Biography

“Born with both feet in the Mediterranean,” the painter from Marseille dedicates a true passion to his home region whose marine collection he explored from a very young age. After learning about drawing techniques from his father and about twenty years consecrated to managing creative projects in communication and advertising, Hervé decided in 2010 to no longer just devote himself to producing his paintings.During the retrospective visit of Zao Wou-Ki (1920-2013) to the Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence, then aged fifteen, Hervé was deeply moved by the Chinese painter and engraver’s work. He would began developing this powerful moment the penny dropped in personal projects at the start of the 2000s. The numerous aquatic immersions from his childhood would also considerably influence his creative work. “Express yourself. […] Paint emotion, create unlikely shadows and light, indulge yourself fully in the imaginary, here are [his] deep motivations, [his] common thread.”Beginning his work of acrylic painting mixed with dry pastels, Hervé strove to experiment with all of the possibilities the two forms offer. He also adds external elements that complete and reinforce the plasticity of his work, notably the mortar and sand. Today he essentially works with oils, with which he associates a composition of mortar and several grains of sand, affixed onto the canvas with a knife. “You have to be able to delve into the depths of the colours and discover the richness of the pigments in each part of the canvas.”