Powerful, dreamlike lines
That same freedom of mind really shows through when Bourguignon is asked about his creative process: how does inspiration come to him?
EB : That's what I'm wondering too ! For me things come without a real logic, in an informal way.
Spontaneity is undeniably present. The brushstrokes are powerful, the colors and patterns melt into each other, and yet, the ensemble is meticulous, drawn. We swim in an ocean of darkness then for a brief moment fly through those bright oranges that evoke a summer sunset. All this brings to mind a great pictorial sensitivity. We feel an impression of melancholic plenitude radiating from Éric Bourguignon's paintings. We feel both the nostalgic past, and the carnal present.
Love of contrasts
When one looks at Bourguignon's work, they may see movement, a work in colors and depth... And dizzying contrasts.
EB: I like to make opposites cohabit (transparency and substance, or construction and deconstruction, for example), but also bring colors and shapes together to create a dreamlike universe. Each layer of paint hides the previous one, like stratums hiding a new little story each time.
It is through this will of narration that the new exhibition's true pictorial construction appears. We can then project our emotions onto it, between heady colors, fragmented floral prints... And heavy darkness that seems straight out of an underground tunnel. We lose ourselves in the winding twists and turns before we finally reach the surface and feel ourselves carried away once more... This time in the celestial immensities or in the deepest part of forests.
A committed exhibit
"Érosion Anthropique", his new exhibition, Éric Bourguignon can describe in those terms:
EB : It is, to simplify, about the influence of Man on nature, with consequences that we know but also the loss of a natural state. The topic isn't breached frontally during the exhibit at gallery Guido Romero Pierini, but with allusions, titles, an ambiance. A human, spectral, fragile presence that seems to be slowly decomposing, exactly like the nature it stands in.
Éric Bourguignon depicts, with those colored masses, an exhalted nature, that in turns engulfs and is engulfed by Mankind, a being that seems to exist only on the surface. Those finely drawn characters, of lines instead of flesh, are an integral part of their environment, only made out by the contours of their bodies. They seem close to disappearing, eroded by time, in an exhausted nature that seems to be falling onto itself. But even then, it's a vital, vivacious energy that shows through: a mad dance, to make the end last a little longer.