Pascal Poutchnine, Painter

I am self-taught and my passion for artistic creation dates back to the 80s, from the start of my professional career, although foreign to the art professions. I had to create slideshows and brochures as part of my work and I very quickly realized that for me, the form was at least as essential as the substance and I devoted a lot of energy to it so that the final support, whatever it is, attracts attention due to its optimal influence and it is “beautiful” at least in my eyes. At the same time, two main axes quickly emerged in what I will call the gestation of my creative desire, shaped over the years first by my summer vacations, then later by my travels: the Mediterranean region, and in France Provence, but also the Caribbean, Asia and Africa and for the latter in particular the fauna and flora, with the necessary imagination because I do not claim or desire in any way to get closer to hyperrealism.

So at the beginning of the 90s I began to draw still lifes and landscapes in small formats with colored pencils, then, thanks to a summer stay, I felt a creative urgency on the port of Saint-Tropez by stopping my gaze on the paintings then exhibited by a local artist, the painter Benjamin. I thus began to paint a few small formats and then began creating a larger format in 1995 which remained unfinished until 2020, caught up in professional and family life. It was then, thanks to a growing freedom, that an irrepressible desire led me to pick up my brushes and finish this painting, then along the way to create others from the same source of inspiration. I have since used a mixed technique combining classic acrylic paint with POSCA-type markers. I therefore have a wide choice of colors while maintaining great finesse of lines. I bring to life scenes that are half dreamlike, half realistic, half naive, always with a palette of very bright colors, most often very warm. It was at this time that while discussing at the end of a play which was being performed at the Marcel Pagnol cultural center in Bures-sur-Yvette, in the Chevreuse valley, I discussed my passion with the manager of the Cultural center and that she offered me, after seeing my first creations, to exhibit in the center the following year when I had enough paintings to show. I therefore had the idea of creating for this occasion a series called “Wildlife / Tropics” in which my compositions would have in common the presence of at least one beautiful wild animal in the foreground, which in my heart, fits wonderfully into an imaginary jungle, and seems to fix my “oeilbjectif”. This first exhibition which was held in April 2023 was a great success and all the compliments I received made me want to go further and distribute my paintings on a larger scale so that as many people as possible can enjoy them.              

That said, every artist has his periods, and along the way, after this « wild life » period, I now turn to a more figurative universe by painting partly real landscapes, extracted from memories of travels in countries/regions where the sun and light are kings and dazzling colors, like Provence, the Mediterranean but also the Caribbean…

In summary, I would define myself as a colorist painter with the desire to sublimate with colors, flat areas, contours, the impressions that I felt while “exploring” the nature around me, according to my wanderings, very close to at home, a little further away or even further away…