Awakening to Joy

The 'Awakening' series is born in the Summer of 2020 and grew throughout the Fall, following a rich conversation between the artist and Malaysian famed artist Sivarajah Natarajan. Somehow, this encounter unleashed a new artistic expression, long contained and kept from view, yet so colourful and textured.

In this special iteration of 'Awakening', Jean-Francois experiments with the colour 'yellow ~ the color of ‘Joy’ as a background layer, followed by a rich mix and blend of colours, applied with a large knife. Particular to this approach is that you can look at the artwork from afar and appreciate the rainbow of colours intersecting seemingly randomly and yet in a given form, while at the same time, you can look at the artwork closely and each small part is intricate in itself, mixing colours as chance would have it through the repeated strokes of the knife.

When interacting with a collector, the artist likes to ask 'What do you see?'. In abstract expressionism, each viewer will see something different ~ a different point of view. Somehow, it means we see ourselves!

The artwork is painted on high quality medium grain acid free 100 % cotton Phoenix canvas (380 gr/sqm), acrylic triple gesso primed. The paint is Liquitex Professional Heavy Body and it is double varnished with Liquitex Professional Satin Varnish. In museum-like conditions, it will last at least 50 years.