Inspired by moments shared on the shores of the Hérault river in the Cévennes, this series is to be discovered as a contemporary story.

It is based on a desire for poetic realism.  The tribute is dedicated to Ronan, Ulrich, Jordan, Romain, Marius, Youri, Ombry, Lucas… his lifelong friends, his faithful role models, his everyday heroes. Never before has Gaétan Vaguelsy shown so much tenderness, not without an underlying sense of humor, towards these characters and their joys.

The Naiad series respects external reality, seeking not perfection but poetic reality. The staging of the characters is sustained by pictorial quality and stands out for its rigor. With no desire for photographic effect, Vaguelsy caresses the landscapes with his brushes, which stroll through the branches, glide over the water, pause in the rock, brush against the skin, giving the whole the velvety pleasure of painting. Each painting becomes for us, the viewer, an exploration in which the sensuality of paint guides us through landscapes conceived as ancient scenery.

His paintings capture the luminosity of evanescent moments of sharing, when time seems to stand still. Gaétan Vaguelsy paints the embodiment of his youth, which he brings to the spotlight, to bring it out of its invisibility. Almost sketched in iconic images, these new naiads are contemporary mirrors of Frederic Bazille, Ingres, Cézanne and even David Hockney. Vaguelsy’s reverence for this art form resonates through this homage to the figurative tradition.

A few ironic details punctuate certain paintings, between wink and parody, such as Naïade with watermelon, or Naïade with tagada strawberries. Each painting is animated by a kaleidoscope of pop culture allusions, converging harmoniously in a crescendo of pictorial mastery, testifying to Vaguelsy’s narrative finesse.  The age of possibility and recklessness. Like the naiads, the characters dance and live on the canvas to the rhythm of the passing day and their own existence.

The quality of a painter always results from the way he tells us a story. Here, the mastery of technique, the sensuality of the paint, the humor, all come together to build a strong and a singular pictorial work, in Gaétan’s new series.