How I became a Painter
Ever since I was a kid, I remember filling entire sheets of paper with pencils and paint. I had a fascination for faces and the way people stared at me or others was captivating.
I kept at it and now, here I am, a 28 year old painter, making a living out of his passion, free to travel almost whenever I want and paint whatever inspires me. People recognize that painting can convey a message and can also be therapeutic. For the observer, a painting can evoke a lot of emotions.
I went to university to study Advertising, Business, and Product Design, until I realised that I could no longer deny my passion to be a painter. I was already selling my artworks at the age of twenty, using the cellar’s corridor in the basement of my building to do my first commissioned works. That’s also the place where I had my first television interview about 7 years ago.
I have been a practitioner of capoeira for years, and I thought how interesting it would be to combine the motions of capoeira with paint. Of course it’s quite different when you try to make it a reality. I met the painter, Yann Couedor and the advice he gave me stuck. He said:
“To become a professional painter, you have to focus on your work 100% of your time.”
I find that to be quite true, like any other job, being a painter truly kicks off once you start full time. I had the chance to be a resident at 59 Rivoli, a 6 floor building (with 30 artists’ studios open to public) an art squat that belongs to the City of Paris. I stayed there for 6 months and had the opportunity to make friends from different places, who enabled me to make my dream come true.
After this, I started to travel. My first destination was Yokohama, Japan where I and took part in a show. Japan is incredible!
After one month in Japan, I came back to Paris and decided that my next trip should be to China. China was full of art, but not the notion you have of it. I stayed in Songzhuang, which is China’s largest community of artists, and met as many as artists as possible. Their work can be gigantic, and full of meaning, which some decide to hide because of communist pressure and others tend to show as a sort of rebellion. I learned a lot from them. I had a solo show in Nanjing, China featuring the unpublished book written by my father called “A Fool’s War”
I went back to France and did a couple of other residencies which did not all work. But that taught me the usefulness of any experience. To be honest, my trips are full of accidents. I have lost artworks to storms, some because the gallery owners were careless and they were stolen. I have also lost money too when I got invited to create series of artworks in places only to turn up and discover that the whole exhibition had been canceled.
I had my first solo show in Lyon. It was full of big palette knife portraits, melting the memories of the new direction my life had taken. The art world is very competitive. I cannot count the number of times I have been brushed off by galleries that I want to display my work. When I was 18, I would introduce myself to gallery owners and they say things such as “I’m not interested” or “Keep working”. The best comments would be “I think there is something. Come back in 2 years”.
I stayed true to my work and at the Malasimbo Festival in the Philippines, I was able to paint Jimmy Cliff and Joss Stone’s portrait. After that I started getting offers from galleries in Thailand who would do anything to make me become a superstar among its art scene; Cultural centers from various cities started offering to sponsor art residencies in order to help me share my vision of life.
Sometimes I cannot believe what I have accomplished in my five years as a professional painter. I am able to make a living off my passion and that is what I want to encourage everybody to do.
I would like to thank the kids for joining when I play capoeira in the parks, people for glancing at me in the metro and sharing a part of their life in the blink of an eye. Thanks to people for letting me share my passion with them, asking questions, reacting, and teaching.
Capoeira and painting are just two little tools that help living together on this planet.
Henri Lamy
