Discover the contemporary work of Bernard NICOLAS

It’s visible every time you walk into a gallery: a painting is the reflection of its artist-author and an unconscious encoded reproduction of its creator. Grumpy artists often give themselves over to the effects of depressing colours with dark delight, while the joyful, jovial painter, the sort who’s the life and soul of the vernissage, will, even if he opts for a tragic note for reasons of convenience, always be recognizable in a conspicuous detail that describes and betrays him. Well, painter Bernard Nicolas presents an ensemble of figurative works that sparkle with life, or rather vitality. Able to break free of the natural constraints imposed by composition during his career, he now happily-go-luckily explores the capacity of pure and vibrant colours to bring joy and enthusiasm to his work without falling into the trap of visual jeremiads. Bernard Nicolas proposes a spontaneous and native encounter with the multi-coloured crowds to be found in market places, ports, and on beaches. Even landscapes emerge entirely bathed in the colours of a conciliatory nature, clothed in a light that makes your eyes itch with simple and uncomplicated optimistic bliss. Hear nature, flowers, lavender and greenery crunch in these juicy and active compositions that, defying overly well-constructed canvases, convey only the brilliance of the instinctive vision, which in turn is daringly presented, abundantly floral and of a relaxed Mediterranean dynamism. André RUELLAN, art critic