Gaetan Vaguelsy: Une épopée Singuliere

Gaétan Vaguelsy presents a series of paintings inspired by moments shared on the banks of the Hérault River in the Cévennes.

The Naiad series respects external reality, seeking not perfection but poetic reality. The staging of the figures is sustained by pictorial quality and distinguished by its rigour. Like the naiads, the figures dance and live on the canvas to the rhythm of the passing day and their own existence. With no desire for photographic effects, Vaguelsy caresses the landscapes with his brushes, which wander through the branches, glide over the water, pause on the rock and brush against the skin, giving the whole the velvety pleasure of painting.

His paintings capture the luminosity of fleeting moments of togetherness, when time seems to stand still. The artist paints the embodiment of his youth, bringing it into the spotlight and out of invisibility. Almost sketched into iconic images, these new naiads become contemporary reflections of Frédéric Bazille, Ingres, Cézanne and David Hockney.

A few ironic details punctuate certain paintings, somewhere between a wink and parody, such as Naïade with Watermelon and Naïade with Tagada Strawberries. Each painting is animated by a kaleidoscope of pop-culture allusions, converging harmoniously in a crescendo of pictorial mastery.