April. Sketches, French-English bilingual edition

François Avril, born in 1961, is an artist graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art who lives and works between Paris, Port Blanc, Orléans and Brussels. He began his career as an illustrator and worked in magazines (Atmosphere, Lair, Liberation, etc.), advertising (Chanel, Hermès, John Loeb, Paris Blages, etc.) and children’s publishing. He also produced several comedy pieces such as Soirs de Paris, Doppelgänger SA, The Ballerina Thief and Le chemin des 3 Places. Working in both small forms and large canvases in colored pencil, acrylic or oil pastel, François Avril never stops exploring techniques and reinventing himself. However, two of his favorite subjects are constant: cities and coastal areas inspired by the great metropolises (Paris, New York, Brussels, Tokyo) and he captures the nature of the Breton beaches, François Avril creates renewed landscapes, working with his memory. An imprint of the emotions that passed him. François Avril’s poetic universe balances realism and abstraction, between line and volume, between monochrome and color. The work presents two sets of canvases – seascapes and urban landscapes. Many of the paintings reflect the artist’s creative process, as explained in François Landon’s essay. Combining invention and reality, the artist creates landscapes whose identity is never certain, but whose skepticism is an invitation to discovery and imagination. François Avril’s works are regularly exhibited in galleries, art centers and international exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Dinard, Milan, Geneva or Hong Kong.