Jean-Michel Perchet ‘s illustrations are a never-ending discovery. The French artist, now living in Denmark, likes to constantly change his illustrative style. It seems from his pictures that he has the desire to explore not only places, but also methods and styles, in order to create something new and different. Discovery is also part of his life and of many of his works. 

Jean-Michel Perchet is a great traveller and has visited many European, African and Asian countries by bicycle during his life. It is evident this passion is reflected in his works by depicting adventurous open spaces and exotic places.

However, this propensity is not just a stylistic whim, but a precise artistic intent: in his compositions we can often see a kind of pictorial realism, which is often foreign to illustration world, leading him to draw what his eyes see. The artistic consideration is therefore based on sight, on the ‘impressionist’ intent of capturing a place. If the link with Impressionism is in many (too many) ways forced, it is also true that we can see a retinal vision, which is typical of a certain kind of painting that we could define as ‘realist’ ante litteram.

Perchet’s relationship with the world of painting is very close. He says that his main source of inspiration are paintings (from all periods) because they share a common trait: the composition, colours and shapes have a very high density of meaning and sensitivity. It is like in some of his illustrations, in which there is a common trait, he wants to adopt the language of painting because it’s varied and meaningful.

In other illustrations we can see a different style, much more modern and close to the most contemporary trends. His vector drawings are extremely refined, the shapes are simplified through careful chiselling and the colour palette consists of four or five vibrant, saturated shades. The images he obtains are therefore very thoughtful and there is a clear desire to create a strong contrast between light and shadow.

Autore: Francesco Fusi