Jean-Baptiste Bernadet

An exceptional colorist, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet constructs atmospheric worlds in his paintings, where nature, sensation, and the psyche are front and center. In a carefully constructed in-between zone bounded by abstraction and landscape painting, his incandescent oranges, full, candid purples, sulfurous yellows, faded pale greens, and deep grays produce worlds where a landscape, its unique memory, and the imagination interact, directed by the eye and the mind. In Jean- Baptiste Bernadet’s work, the act of looking, which is both transitory and continual, melancholic and elated, joins feeling, which is here envisioned as a series of emotions, a patchwork of romantic recollections and introspections, whirling perceptions inspired by the passage of time. In his intimate relationship to memory and his deep desire to transcend linear time, the work of Jean-Baptiste Bernadet is similar to the Proustian spirit. Ultimately, the purpose of his painting is painting itself, all the while giving viewers the freedom of projecting their own experiences onto the surface.