The work of François Portais moves between sea and self, between landscape and state of mind. What first appears as a wave or horizon gradually turns inward, becoming a space of memory, stillness and attention.
Sometimes the paint is thin and transparent like air, at other times dense and grainy like sand or foam. Through layering, scraping, and glazing, a sense of movement arises, the surface begins to breathe, as if the painting itself holds time.
Portais connects to the tradition of the Romantic and expressive landscape, where nature reflects the human interior. Echoes of Friedrich’s quiet infinity, Turner’s dissolving light, and Kiefer’s material gravity are present, yet his own tone is contemporary, without pathos, centered on presence rather than drama.
The sea, the moon, the face, they return as variations on a single theme: the moment when form dissolves into space, and the personal merges with the impersonal. Darkness here is not a threat but a depth that holds; light is not revelation but pause. Painting becomes a practice of attention.