Discover the contemporary work of Dominique Boucher

... Hurry up and paint, or hurry up and die...

Forty-five years of painting, nineteen of which were professional.

Born in 1955 in Picardy, Dominique Boucher has lived and worked in Saint-Gaudens since 1976.

A self-taught painter, he indulges in ballpoint pen painting, a technique discovered day by day, learned through numerous projects, invented, and mastered, to free himself and give free rein to the "images" flowing from the painter's head, or his heart, to the ballpoint of his pens.

In October 2004, Dominique Boucher decided to devote himself entirely to his painting and enrolled at the Maison des Artistes.

In 2006, the painter added a second technique to his painting, acrylic, in order to work with other formats, other subjects, and discover other sensations...

In 2007, in order to be completely independent and in direct contact with the public, he opened his studio-gallery in Saint-Gaudens. It was an opportunity to exchange views with other painters and to have some wonderful encounters, particularly with Jean-Jacques Debout.

2014... Economic reality gradually taking precedence over the painter's "romantic" vision of his work tool, Dominique Boucher was forced to close his studio-gallery, and like "a monkey in winter," to withdraw into his shell, within which and until Today he lives and paints alone...

... To paint...

"It's to lie resolutely.Iam lying sincerely. With innocence. Just to say, to suggest as true, moments of a life that isn't, true, not yet, not quite, almost on the verge of tipping into the possible. To paint figuratively is to paint figuratively. To say only the outlines of one thought, then another, of one vision, then another, so that the eye offers... the mind to lose itself in conjecture. What is given to see is perhaps of less importance than what does not appear on the canvas, in the image. It is hardly a question of visible or invisible, but of appearance leaning towards verisimilitude. That is to say, the images that the painter proposes as being so many moments of romanticized lives are also moments of real life. And vice versa. That is to say, real life sometimes takes on the appearance of a romanticized life. No premeditation, no considered perspectives. But to make the imagination speak. Because itis impossible to believe that there isn't something else beyond, beneath the monotonous contours of life...

Dominique Boucher

... If it were just a matter of showing, and looking? …

“ Exhibiting is not an end in itself, but sometimes a necessity, and often a pleasure.

To paint with the sole aim of showing would be to run the risk of painting led astray by the cumbersome desire to seduce and please.

And because it is necessary to put an end to Rumor has it that the artist lives on love and fresh water, exhibiting becomes a necessity, if only to renew the material, not to mention daily needs.

The certain pleasure of the honors of the gallery nonetheless remains difficult to live with. A strange sensation, a diabolical mix of euphoria and fear, pride and humility, affirmation and uncertainty, the display of one's work is hardly an ordinary act. Perhaps it is tangible proof of the existence of this work, and that of the painter. Perhaps, as some claim, the painter's pictorial universe only has reality if it leaves the studio. Perhaps they are right, all those who see in the multiplication of exhibitions held by the painter his credibility, his seriousness, his importance. For my part, I continue to believe that my painting does not draw its legitimacy from the eyes of the public, judges and critics, kind or severe, knowledgeable or new to it.

The encounter, the exchange, the public's gaze is not a sanction, castrating or honorary, but an ear that one hopes will be attentive, a word in return, an open and outstretched hand, which accompanies the painter on his solitary journey...

Dominique Boucher