Philippe Charlet - "Regards" Exhibition

Coloured pencils, charcoal, graphite, black stone, particular techniques and vision.

PHILIPPE CHARLET, originally from the Champagne region, was born in the 1960s. Fascinated by the American hyperrealist art movement popular at the time, he became a history teacher. He settled in Orléans in the 1990s and set up his studio there as soon as he arrived.

The Artist developed a technique using coloured pencils, charcoal, graphite and black stone, for practical reasons at first, given that these dry techniques require no preparatory work and no clean-up after each session, unlike, for example, oil painting...

PHILIPPE CHARLET creates realistic, even photo-realistic, portraits by hand, using pencils, with a very specific technique, working from the lightest to the darkest, layer by layer, with no room for correction — a real challenge in the age of the graphics tablet, Photoshop and AI... no Ctrl+Z... every mistake is irreversible.

The Artist is captivated by the gaze. Whether frontal, lost, direct, oblique or veiled, each gaze presented tells a story, stories.

PHILIPPE CHARLET tells us: "The portrait is not an end in itself, but the beginning of a questioning about what lies behind what is shown: from the public's gaze on the painting to the model's gaze on the viewer... At the heart of this virtual exchange, the eyes: pupil, iris, colours, reflections, light, eyelashes, eyelids, tears..."

For this first exhibition, the Artist casts on his Muses a discreet and delicate gaze, where the visitor is invited to share a certain intimacy between the expression of his Art and their own imagination.

PHILIPPE CHARLET is still based today at the Atelier Oulan-Bator, and practises his profession as a teacher alongside his artistic passion.

Saturday 13 & 20 May: 3:00pm/7:30pm Sunday 14 & 21 May: 3:00pm/7:00pm Thursday 18 May: 3:00pm/7:00pm