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Julien Chavanne
Julien Chavanne is a painter, author, and entrepreneur, born in France in 1978. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, among other institutions, he has been developing a body of work dedicated to landscape, oil painting, and pastels since his teenage years, inspired by extended stays in Japan—in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kamakura. His work lies at the intersection of the European pictorial tradition and Japanese aesthetics of ma, silence, and contemplation, exploring light, emptiness, and impermanence as raw materials. Based between Paris and the Perche region, he is the author of *Art as an Imprint* and the founder of Happy Paint, a project aimed at making painting accessible to as many people as possible.
My Background
Born in 1978 in France, I am a painter, author, and social entrepreneur. I have been painting since my teenage years, following an art program in high school and later taking adult classes at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Based between Paris and the Perche region, where my studio is located, I am currently developing a body of work focused on landscape, pastel, drawing, and oil painting inspired by Asia, particularly Japan. My work explores light, emptiness, color, and impermanence.
My approach lies at the intersection of the European pictorial tradition and Japanese aesthetics of ma, silence, and contemplation. Several stays lasting several months in Japan—in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kamakura—as well as in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul have nourished my pictorial imagination.
I am the author of *L'Art comme empreinte* (Éditions L'Harmattan). Through Happy Paint, which I founded, I also develop projects aimed at making the practice of painting accessible to the general public.
Based between Paris and the Perche region, where my studio is located, I am currently developing a body of work focused on landscape, pastel, drawing, and oil painting inspired by Asia, particularly Japan. My work explores light, emptiness, color, and impermanence.
My approach lies at the intersection of the European pictorial tradition and Japanese aesthetics of ma, silence, and contemplation. Several stays lasting several months in Japan—in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kamakura—as well as in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul have nourished my pictorial imagination.
I am the author of *L'Art comme empreinte* (Éditions L'Harmattan). Through Happy Paint, which I founded, I also develop projects aimed at making the practice of painting accessible to the general public.
My Artistic Vision
My paintings and drawings emerge from the void—not as an absence, but as a space of origin, breath, and transformation. Inspired by the Japanese concept of ma, I seek to open up the surface rather than fill it.
White becomes an active space: an interval where the gaze flows, where forms appear without ever fully closing in on themselves.
I work primarily in dry pastel and oil paint, using direct, discontinuous, irreversible strokes. Color is applied in touches, almost percussively. The work is built through rhythms, silences, and pauses.
For me, painting is about transforming a fleeting perception into a living space. Each creation becomes a focal point, a fragile attempt to reveal what connects the full and the empty, the moment and the timeless, to capture the fleeting image of a world in perpetual flux.
White becomes an active space: an interval where the gaze flows, where forms appear without ever fully closing in on themselves.
I work primarily in dry pastel and oil paint, using direct, discontinuous, irreversible strokes. Color is applied in touches, almost percussively. The work is built through rhythms, silences, and pauses.
For me, painting is about transforming a fleeting perception into a living space. Each creation becomes a focal point, a fragile attempt to reveal what connects the full and the empty, the moment and the timeless, to capture the fleeting image of a world in perpetual flux.
Key Points
2003: Graduated from HEC Paris, with a specialization in Arts and Culture Management
2007: Studied painting at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris
2015: Acquisition of a paint shop in the Perche region
2017: Publication of *Art as an Imprint* by L'Harmattan
2018: Participated in a group exhibition organized by the Pays d’art et d’histoire du Perche Sarthois
2024–2025: Creative Residencies in Hong Kong
2025–2026: Creative Residencies in Tokyo
