Jean Claude Picot Biography

Inspired by the Fauvist masters, Picot works in a Post-Impressionist manner reducing flowers, trees, houses and figures to their essential forms. All of his work is imbued with the same bright and cheerful character, and is instantly identifiable. Since 1947 he has exhibited in over 50 one-person shows throughout the world, including exhibitions in the United States, Belgium, Norway and Australia.

Since 1956, Jean Claude Picot has been a full-time professional artist.

He was greatly influenced by the works of the Fauvist masters Vlaminck, Derain and Matisse. These artists, whose exuberant canvases created great attention in the first decade of the 20th century due to their revolutionary use of color, texture and abstract form, have inspired Picot for decades and one finds many similar characteristics in his works. He developed a unique style that recalls a Post-Impressionist application of color combined with the expressive qualities of line.

The world of his art is often one of a happy reflection on relaxation, and personal "joie de vivre." Picot captures the animation, romance and essence of the landscape as his favored subject, although he also creates still-life, cityscapes, markets, and festival scenes. His work abounds with natural beauty and breathtaking views charged with the unique light of the Mediterranean.

Picot lives a part of the year in the south of France, and often draws on the Cote d’Azur—its visitors, its beaches and its boat-filled harbors.

Picot actively works in many media – oil, acrylic, watercolor, etching, ceramic and most recently, serigraphy and embellished serigraphy, which beautifully capture his vibrant color and painterly technique. His work is a favorite of collectors internationally, and is represented in prestigious collections worldwide.

In reviews of Picot's most recent solo shows in Paris, Bordeaux and Oslo, critics cited the affinities between the masters of the turn-of-the century Impressionism and early Twentieth Century Fauvism and the 61-year-old French artist, thus beginning to place his work in the art history of important French landscape painters. Today in the 21st Century, Picot continues the tradition of important French landscape painters.