Travel has always been more than movement for me, it is a way of seeing differently. Each place carries its own rhythm, its own silence, its own contradictions. As a French artist working in both Los Angeles and Palm Springs, I find that travel continually reshapes not only what I see, but how I paint.

Finding Comfort in You II continues my exploration of refuge, intimacy, and compassion through the act of presence. Just as in the first painting of the series, the work reflects the ways we lean on one another to navigate storms of emotion. As a French artist working in both Los Angeles and Palm Springs, I see comfort not as an isolated idea, but as a universal language, one that transcends age, gender, or circumstance.

Every painting begins in the solitude of the studio, but its journey often extends far beyond those walls. Preparing artwork for exhibition is a process that transforms a private act of creation into a public dialogue. As a French artist working in both Los Angeles and Palm Springs, I’ve learned that the way a piece is presented can shape how viewers connect with it.

Collecting art is an emotional journey as much as it is an investment. As a French artist and expressionist artist, I’ve seen firsthand how certain pieces resonate deeply with collectors, not just in the moment, but for decades. While market trends shift, the works that stand the test of time share certain qualities that go beyond style or subject.

The way we discover art has transformed in the last decade. As a French artist and expressionist artist, I’ve seen how online platforms can connect collectors to extraordinary works in contemporary art, emotional art, and psychological art, often from across the globe.

Here are five online platforms worth exploring if you’re looking to discover new voices in mixed media art and beyond.

In recent years, I’ve noticed a renewed interest in the human figure within contemporary art. As a French artist and expressionist artist, my own work has always been rooted in the figure, not in a literal sense, but as a vessel for emotion, memory, and psychological depth.

When people first see my paintings, they often ask why there are fragments of newspaper embedded in the surface. For me, newspaper isn’t about the words. It’s about the texture, the noise, and the feeling it leaves behind. As a French artist and expressionist artist, I see every material as a way to carry meaning - not just through the image itself, but through the surface we encounter first.

I was born in France, where art, emotion, and conversation are often inseparable. My work is shaped not only by French aesthetics but by a way of seeing, one that values tension, nuance, and the space between words. As a French artist, I carry that with me in every painting.

Texture is not a technique. It’s a voice. It speaks through the surface before the figure is even formed. As a French expressionist artist, I use texture to carry tension, emotion, and memory, the things that exist beneath the visible.

As a French artist working in contemporary art, I’ve always been drawn to environments that reflect human contradiction. Cities are that, in their rawest form. They are vibrant and isolating. Chaotic and poetic. Indifferent and inspiring.

There’s something that happens when you experience a painting in person that can’t be replicated on a screen. The weight of the surface, the depth of texture, the subtle shifts in tone, these are all things that unfold slowly, and they ask for presence.

As a French artist working in mixed media art, my process involves layering oil, newspaper, pencil, and texture to create work that carries both emotional and physical weight. These details live on the surface, and they’re meant to be seen up close.

If you’ve connected with my work online, I invite you to spend time with it in person, where the energy of each piece can fully settle in.

Lonely Together II continues the emotional exploration I began in the first painting of the series. While Lonely Together I focused on adult intimacy and isolation, this piece turns its gaze toward the past, to childhood, where loneliness often first takes root.

As a French expressionist artist, I wanted this painting to offer a different kind of intimacy. Here, the figures are younger versions of the couple we met before. They sit not with one another, but in front of their adult selves. This layering of time is meant to show how emotional memory, especially loneliness, persists quietly through the years.

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.

This new series, Lonely Together, began with a single idea: that two people can share a space and still feel profoundly alone.

The first painting in the collection captures a quiet domestic moment between a couple. At first glance, the scene might suggest contentment. A shared room, a gentle posture, a life intertwined. But the longer you look, the more it starts to shift. There’s tension in the body language, silence in the space between them. Are they reaching for each other, or drifting apart?

That question and the inability to answer it easily is where the work begins.

People often ask me how I begin a painting. Where the process starts. If there’s a plan. The truth is, the process is both structured and unpredictable. There are patterns, yes. Ways I begin, materials I return to, but no two paintings are the same. Each one requires something slightly different. Something I can’t always explain before I begin.

Still, there are a few threads that run through everything I make.

In the world of collecting, experience shifts the eye. First-time buyers may be drawn to color or scale, but seasoned collectors look for something quieter — work that resonates beyond aesthetics. When it comes to emerging expressionist artists, there are certain patterns that repeat. It’s not about reputation. It’s about potential, presence, and voice.

Here’s what experienced collectors often seek when discovering new expressionist work.

Sébastien Montel’s creations — oil and mixed media figurative works layered over newspaper collage — reflect the emotional weight and raw energy associated with the expressionist artist tradition. As a French artist working in Los Angeles, he merges bold mark-making with material depth, creating work that lives at the intersection of contemporary art, emotional art, and psychological art.