Jean-Pierre Poisson has no construction concept for his painting. It is created bit by bit.

When Jean-Pierre places his brush on the blank canvas, it’s as if he were striking the first chord of one of his jazz improvisations on the piano. In painting, just like in music, he draws his inspiration from the emotion of the moment: total improvisation and even a search for harmony.

Jean-Pierre believes that colours sing, and he needs the music to paint, whether it be the very slow blues of John Lee Hooker, the moody jazz of Thelonious Monk, the wild rock of the Rolling Stones or a colourful, flamboyant dance by Rimski-Korsakov.

When he starts a canvas, he chooses a piece of music that suits his current mood. He then starts the first phase of creating the canvas: improvisation. He makes mechanical movements that are guided by the music. He paints directly on to the canvas with powder pigments. This initial, almost ecstatic improvisation stage leads to the construction phase, and then to composition. Jean-Pierre analyses his canvas. He balances out the shapes and colours.

His meeting with a Chinese painter in the 1980s was a determining factor. He made him work with Chinese ink in shades of black for months. Li Sen believes this is the only way to interpret light correctly. So, Jean-Pierre endeavours, when working on his canvases, to bring out the light by creating an interaction between transparent areas and successive glazes. The painting must look as if it’s lit from behind.

Jean-Pierre essentially uses Chinese brushes to create these very special effects. His artistic language is very personal, creating a contrast between transparent areas and matter, with a broad pictorial pallet, where wide swathes or granular jets of black support and reinforce the play between the other colours.

His 500 m² workshop-exhibition room is located in the old tannery of Gélos, which is brimming with charm. It is possible to view it.