Jérôme Delépine

Painting

Inspired by his masters Rembrandt and Turner, Jérôme Delépine plays with light, using chiaroscuro in paintings with velvety and mysterious glazes. Immense and dazzling skies emerge from dark and misty landscapes, where one can barely distinguish a tree, faint silhouettes or a frail boat tossed by the waves. From the darkness also emerge his portraits, slightly washed out to reflect the passing of time, but simultaneously fascinating and frightening with their singular gazes, piercing the canvas with their mocking, frightened or introspective look like mirrors of the soul. Faces of great humanity reminiscent of Rustin in their manner.

Such a fascination for the mystery of light and shadow always raises questions. “We often ask ourselves what motivates our vocation for a specific art. In every artist, there is a crack”, says Jérôme Delépine. For this painter, trained in art and painting since the age of 11, it is the fear of blindness that has plagued him since childhood, due to a congenital disease that caused the loss of one eye and left 2/10ths of vision in the other. Resilience helping, painting becomes his light, his freedom, his inspiration, in a free figuration and with a swift and very intuitive execution.

“My landscapes or my characters come out of my imagination, my dreams. In any case, I don’t know what it is to see reality, my universe is always symbolic. The important thing is the vision, not the acuity. Whatever the technique used, oil, drawing or monotype, Jérôme Delépine works on the perception conveyed by his poor eyesight, in search of matter, depth, contrasts and a crushed humanity, almost wounded by the light which brings him back to his quest for knowledge and questionning.

Texte de Catherine Rigollet traduit en anglais