PICOT Jean-Claude

Jean-Claude PICOT (born 1933) is a French painter. Since 1956, Jean Claude Picot has worked exclusively as a professional artist. It is greatly influenced by the works of fawn masters like Vlaminck, Derain and Matisse, whose exuberant canvases attracted attention in the first decade of the twentieth century for their revolutionary use of color, texture and abstract form. These artists have inspired Jean-Claude PICOT for decades and this influence has been returned to his work.

Picot has developed a unique style that recalls a post-impressionist application of color, combined with expressive qualities of shape and line. His compositions are often soothing, possessing his joy of personal life. He often captures the animation, romance and essence of the landscape as a favourite subject, although he also paints still lifes, urban landscapes, markets and festival scenes. All his work is imbued with the same brilliant and joyful character and is immediately identifiable.

Since 1947, he has exhibited in more than fifty individual exhibitions around the world, including exhibitions in the United States, Belgium, Norway and Australia. Picot lives part of the year in the south of France and often attracts the French Riviera - its visitors, beaches and ports full of boats. His work is full of natural beauty and has breathtaking panoramic views charged with the unique light of the Mediterranean. Picot works post-impressionistly, reducing flowers, trees, houses and figures to their essential forms.

In the criticisms of the most recent personal exhibitions of Picot in Paris, Bordeaux and Oslo, critics cited the affinities between the masters of Impressionism and the Fauvism of the beginning of the 20th century with the work of Picot. Today in the 21st century, Picot continues the tradition of the great French landscapers.

Picot works actively in many media - oil, acrylic, watercolour, engraving, ceramics, and more recently, silkscreen and silkscreen - that capture beautifully its vibrant color and pictorial technique. His work is a favourite of international collectors and is represented in prestigious collections around the world.