Painting the elements

Dreamcatcher, acrylic on paper, 2021

Like many young painters, Clément Denis is fascinated by Hokusai's Great Wave of Kanagawa: the master of Japanese engraving was able to transpose the indescribable force of nature into a geometric language in which humans are reduced to their mortality. Taking his inspiration from the painter but moving away from him at the same time, Clément began in 2020, during the pandemic, to study the different ways in which water can overwhelm us. Still on his island of Noirmoutier, threatened by rising waters, he began to study water as flow. Cradled in the waves as if drowned in the flow, our modern lives, always on the move, are colonised by a deluge of information and action. Through his series of paintings The river song, tribute title to Bruce Chatwin’s book The songlines, Clément treats water as the driving force of our lives: in his waves he incorporates symbols such as Japanese yokai and biblical and mythological animals. The river song is an invitation to accept the flood in order to transform ourselves and become one with nature.

His second series of paintings, Chroniques temporelles de Vétheuil, focuses on a second element: air. In this series, through the vibrant colours of the different seasons he traces the movement of the wind in the trees and winding paths. Vetheuil, a small picturesque village in which he settled in 2021 after the pandemic, is a source of inspiration for his work. He took refuge in the old house of Claude Monet and rediscovered the work of Joan Mitchell, former resident with Jean Paul Riopelle of the house overlooking his own.

Chroniques temporelles de Vétheuil (2022-2023) - The river song (2021-2023)