Luc Dartois 2017 - Iena Bridge - Paris, painting, matter, light, black and white

Paris, Iena bridge - Luc Dartois - Paintings and matters on canvas 2017

Souvenir is plastic and never stop evolving through time. It embellish or darken itself, it can be forgotten or can gain strenght.

It is always based on a primitive structure which can be stimulated to allow us to go back to the roots of memory and time... until reaching the lost time.

Here the bridge is connecting the invisible world and the visible world.

Its stability is opposing the moving masses of the sky and the water. This way the fleetingness of the void and the world of depth are linked.

The presence of the subject has been focused on water and light, two changing and moving elements. Details of the bridge and the buildings have been left suggested. Every anecdotal detail have been removed in order to let only the essential.

The river is evoking mobility, the dissolving of souvenirs, echoing by this way the misty light of the winter. It evoke also volatility, departure, oblivion, the place where the threads of memory are getting lost.

Strokes are fine and often blurred in order to reinforce the scatering of the light on the whole surface of the canvas. The contours are fading and are melting one within another.

Even though the paint strokes are very diluted, the underlying matters are giving some foreground of a very high density.

Brush strokes are barely visible, but the texture of the matters is preserved and stay always visible.

Light has been dissolved in the sky in order to render the misty atmosphere of a winter light.

The sky is made of cotton.

The mass on the right side is made of a mix of soil, humus, and cement.

Highlights are made of a mix of plaster, glue, and dry pigment zinc white.

Mineral matters are in minority, but they are giving the stability and the balance in the composition, as well as the connexion between the organic matter of the sky and the liquid synthetic matter of the river.

The river's density is in contrast with the merging of the sky in the mist.

The contrast of the matters is coming in addition to the contrast of the paints. They are following the general plane of the composition: cotton/cement/artificial water which matches the sky/buildings/river. Each plane have its own matter.

The river is made of an aluminium foil laid on the first coat of cement.

The aluminium foil has been worked accorded to the water movements, then covered with a mix of dry pigments and artificial water.

The painting and lighting has been made over this mix of matters.

The bridge and the buildings are made of cement.

The building line has been drafted, but stay visible enough to be distinguished from the sky.

As usual, the work started with a drawing on the canvas, made after a photo. It has been followed by some pre-coats of cement before thicker layer of matters.

The colouring, then the light distribution are comming after during the construction process.

Therefore, the cement is darkened first with some wood stain before the use of paints.

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We are standing in the world of the souvenir, as elusive as a changing sky, as deep as the ocean floor.

As far as it is buried, it can always re-emerge through a sound, a smell, a light.

Sensations are reconstructed with souvenirs, releasing the mind.

Sensations, souvenirs and thoughts are melting and merging so well through light, shadows, or matters. They are forwarded through every paint stroke.

The matter reflect its absolute presence, light reveal the invisible, suggest hidden meanings. Spirit and matter are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other.

A restricted range of paints have been used. All the light intensity is focused in the vibration of the matters. The different shades are most frequently obtained by the modulation of one basic colour.

Two black dry pigments have been mainly used: a black for fresco as a load in the paint for the sky, and a ivory black for the other areas. Intermediary greys are located in the center of the canvas in the bridge zone.

The combination of blacks and matters is giving in the end a more extended range of blacks:

- black for fresco blended with cotton tinted in mass

- ivory black blended with a mix of soil, cement and humus darkened with wood stain

- ivory black blended with cement in the shadows of the bridge

- ivory black mixed with artificial water for the river, which gives the deepest black

Dry pigment zinc white mixed with plaster and glue has been used for highlights. Zinc white is more blueish then the titanium white and give a colder light.

Masses are distributed between three main separate zones: the sky, the river, and the bridge. The two small masses on each side act as connections. They are balancing the whole picture.

The vertical reflections serves as a liaison between the water and the sky. The bridge is in the middle of the canvas.

Symetry and mass balance are giving a very stable image.

The organisation of the space on the canvas is highly geometric.

Verticals and horizontals are forming a dense mesh which reinforce the whole stability. There is no strong diagonal in the general composition.

The dark mass on the right is showing an overlay of a group of trees and a profile of a block of buildings, as it can be confirmed on the satellite view. The few lights spotted on the mass are playing the role of an anchorage in the whole canvas.

Without these lights, the mass would be separated from the rest of the painting and would create the impression that the image is ending at the right edge of the bridge.

Perspective is frontal, the only horizontal lines are building space.

Distances are obliterated by the light. The satellite view is showing that the group of trees on the right is very close, while the block of buildings on the left is very far.

The canvas is adapted for an exhibiting with a rather frontal lighting. The work on the canvas has been done with a daylight coming from the right, South-East exposure.

It is signed with a stamp on the top right. On the back side is written a list of the components used and a conter-signature.

It required around two months of work.

We are in front of the Iena Bridge in Paris.

Made in the year 2017, this canvas has been exhibited for the first time in New York in 2018, then in Paris in 2018, 2019, and early March 2020.

2017 is a period when many night walks were made along the banks, as it can be seen on several series of photos taken at these times.

This painting is in black and white. It is of a panoramic format, used for the first time here. It is 95cm long for 38cm height.

2017 - Iena Bridge, Paris

A river, a bridge, some lights, some highlights.

A block of buildings emerges in the background on the left, a bridge is standing on the middle of the canvas, a dark mass doted with few lights is located on the right side.