Color and Emotion in My Work
Color is not a backdrop. It is the emotion. It’s the first feeling you absorb from a painting, often before you even realize it. Before the figure takes shape, before the posture becomes readable, before the meaning begins to unfold — there is color.
As a French artist and expressionist artist, I don’t approach color with a fixed theory. I work from instinct. The choices I make are shaped by the mood I’m in, the emotional current of the canvas, and the energy of the figure. My work exists within the space of contemporary art, but it’s always rooted in personal feeling.
Color is intuitive. But it’s never accidental.
Emotion Before Explanation
I’m not trying to create harmony in the traditional sense. I’m trying to create friction, tension, atmosphere or whatever the work needs. Sometimes that means using unexpected pairings. Sometimes it means layering until the tone becomes cloudy, unsettled, ambiguous. Because emotion rarely arrives in pure tones. It arrives layered, complex, unresolved.
This is where the intention of emotional art becomes clear. It’s not just about how something looks, it’s about how it stays with you.
Color as a Psychological Tool
I often use color in the same way one might use silence or gesture, not to explain, but to reveal. Color, for me, functions like memory. It distorts, softens, sharpens. It makes something personal feel universal. This connection between palette and perception is central to my work in psychological art, where the canvas becomes a mirror for internal states.
The Weight of the Palette
The palette I use shifts from series to series. In Lonely Together, the tones are intentionally muted, set apart from the vibrancy of real life. I use this to create emotional distance, to reflect the subtle disconnects that sit inside relationships. Color, in this context, becomes a voice for the unsaid.
When I create, I imagine how color might speak for the character, especially when they themselves are silent.
No Fixed Rules
My process is fluid. I blend and layer in the moment, responding to what’s already on the surface. I compare it often to chemistry. Not technical, but experimental. I adjust until something feels right, not just visually, but emotionally.
Working in mixed media art, I use oil, newspaper, pencil, and sometimes photography. These materials allow me to build layered surfaces that carry physical texture and emotional resonance at the same time.
Color That Remains
I don’t want color to simply support the work. I want it to do the work. I want it to hold space, shift energy, and leave something behind. If the image fades from memory but the feeling remains, then color has done what it was meant to do.