Techniques

Jean-Philippe Haure’s artistic tech­nique is his unique inter­pre­ta­tion of light. His pur­pose as an artist is to observe, and wit­ness the many splendid facets of life, in par­tic­ular the Balinese cul­ture. From this obser­va­tion and the inges­tion of infor­ma­tion arises a dis­tinct response. One of his gifts is his intu­ition, which prompts his deci­sion-making and guides him, step-by-step, to create time­less and mag­nif­i­cent works of art.

“There is a sen­si­tive inter­re­la­tion­ship and bal­ance between myself and nature, which gen­er­ates indi­vidual out­comes. I care­fully pre­pare my working envi­ron­ment and let nature take con­trol,” he states.

The material

Haure’s artistic tech­nique begins with pho­tog­raphy. Passionate about cap­turing images of dis­tinct beauty, he has been prac­tising pho­tog­raphy for over 30 years. This method allows him to take the first steps in cre­ating the pic­tures that come to life within his imag­i­na­tion. Haure works with var­ious Balinese models. Some of the models he seeks out inten­tion­ally, others maybe char­ac­ters that coin­ci­dently appear in his life.

When the oppor­tu­nity arises, Haure will take many pho­tographs. When the models are relaxed; he pre­serves moments of inno­cence and beauty. Haure’s strength is his capacity for patience and to wait for the moment when a par­tic­ular aspect of their per­son­ality is revealed.
Photography is the pro­cess of com­piling the essen­tial research mate­rial that Haure then studies on his com­puter to dis­cover com­po­si­tional pos­si­bil­i­ties.

The abstrac­tion

When Haure finally has an appro­priate image in his mind’s eye, the painting pro­cess of applying colour washes to the paper may begin. “When I see some­thing organ­i­cally occur­ring that is of interest, I focus upon this and try to empha­size or enhance it. The most impor­tant thing is not to destroy it,” Haure states.

Trusting in the pro­cess is a learned dis­ci­pline that requires a laser-sharp focus—Haure’s remark­able sen­si­tivity func­tions as his guide. “There are times I wish to impose my will upon what I wit­ness unfolding before my eyes. My ego says I am the artist – I am in con­trol,” he exclaims. “Yet when you con­sent to this, you inter­fere.”

Haure works upon an unusual table he designed and built, which per­mits him to manip­u­late and tilt the sur­face of the paper in three-dimen­sions. This allows the nat­ural forces of gravity to influ­ence the direc­tion and flow of the wash during the pro­cess. The subtle move­ments of the table impact upon the struc­ture of the wash, cre­ating var­ious coloured dots, runs and fas­ci­nating abstract forms.

During the pro­cess, Haure responds intu­itively by tilting the table to encourage the flow of the wash. He may also add other colours to enhance the aes­thetic results. By manip­u­lating the table, he gen­er­ates unique cir­cum­stances that enhance and nur­ture colour and light.

The marriage

When Haure is sat­is­fied with the foun­da­tion wash, he begins drawing the com­po­si­tion of the models onto the paper with water­colour pen­cils. Working without studies, he starts by out­lining the main struc­tures of the design. He builds the small details and motifs on the clothes, for example, to create the ambi­ence and the sense of move­ment within the pic­ture.
The face of the sub­ject is the very last part of the image that he will attempt. Haure’s chal­lenge is to bal­ance the com­po­si­tion so that all of the motifs and the faces are cohe­sive.

The drawing pro­cess requires enor­mous patience and is a dis­tinct method because it is done on a sheet of paper already filled with colours and abstract visual infor­ma­tion. A few lines depicting the struc­ture of the model will deter­mine its posi­tion on the coloured back­ground. By working on this out­line with coloured pencil, pastel and graphite, changing the colours, adding hatching and cre­ating con­trasts, little by little the figure will appear. There is a del­i­cate mar­riage between fig­u­ra­tion and abstrac­tion, back­ground and form, reality and emo­tion.

“What a plea­sure it is to draw on such a richly coloured sheet of paper. This pro­cess is vastly dif­ferent from working upon a white sheet of paper," says Jean-Philippe. “Yet it is also a battle.”

At times the figure doesn’t want to appear cor­rectly for him, dis­torted by the inter­ac­tion with the abstract back­ground. It has to be cor­rected, using all the tech­nical resources of Haure’s expe­ri­ence. Sometimes, how­ever, the figure appears in just a few strokes - as if it was already there in advance.

Satisfied with this part of the pro­cess, Jean-Philippe then looks, looks and looks again at the form. This pro­cess can last sev­eral weeks. Each time, how­ever, he observes with new eyes. He then finds a cor­rec­tion to be made, a con­trast to be changed or a line of light to be added.
And then finally the bal­ance is sta­bi­lized and achieved. There are no more obsta­cles to the per­fect mar­riage of the drawing and wash, the colours and mate­rial, the abstrac­tion and realism. The painting comes to life.