"Jean-Roger NOLF. Alchemist of Transparency.
The painter usually expresses himself in broad daylight only through his "finished" works. His initial sketches, drafts, studies, and outlines generally remain hidden, tightly packed within modest cardboard folders of drawings. What joy it is for the curious to cast a fresh gaze into these folders, like a child exploring an attic!
Jean-Roger NOLF grants us a privileged manner by allowing us to discover these "Free Figures" from his works on paper: watercolors, collages, drawings. It is tempting to say that he grants us the privilege of transparency. Indeed, transparency is truly the philosopher's stone of this alchemist of watercolor, where color and line play with light and our emotions. This subtle art of suggestion, nuance, asserts itself as his preferred mode of expression; a mode difficult in a world where spontaneity cannot free itself from authentic craftsmanship.
Craftsmanship is something Jean-Roger NOLF does not lack. After a solid education: Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing, Parisian academies, evening courses in the City of Paris, he frequents the workshops of masters such as Janerand, Viard, and Vanthé, from whom he has assimilated lessons.
From seascapes to still lifes, from drawings to collages, various inspirations and a proven technique come together to create a work of talent. His work is a synthesis of different aesthetic contributions: the precision of the line, the search for undulating curves characteristic of Ingres, the subtle Matisseian balance of rigor and sensitivity, the influence of Picasso and Braque for the strength of the line, cubist exploration in collages where fruits, pitchers, and flowers unite in full and sensual forms.
The watercolorist accentuates in vibrant strokes the harmonies of colors, evoking Dunoyer de Segonzac's shadow play or the supple graphic style of Marquet. The entire life vibrates under the brush of this generous colorist. Play of shadows and lights, harmonies of colors, violets, deep ultramarine blue, lighter cerulean, or more transparent cadmium yellow.
The transparency is the master word and the artist's alchemy!"
Jean-Mare SIMON
Muguette GUERANDE
