JEAN-PIERRE MARLADOT - ARTIST
Traditional tractor used in Oysterage- photography by Stephen Brown
Jean-Pierre Marladot could be the most dedicated artist in France. Not for him the Parisian beau monde or the famous chilly garrets of La Bohème where young men burned the furniture to survive in between parties and late-night orgies of drink and debauchery. But he has just discovered for the very first time – and after a career of aquarelles and still life, that he loves the painters of the past.
Aquarelle in Building
“This book of Caravaggio’s dramatic oils has inspired me. I adored his painting in the Louvre I find I meet myself in this kind of 18th and 19th century painting – it has been a revelation, an epiphany. In the work of Georges de la Tour and his contemporaries I find my new inspiration. People who can paint portraits particular I now truly value for the first time.’
Jean Pierre lives and breathes his art in the wilderness of the Western coast with its crashing Atlantic waves and where his boathouse crouches on the dramatic dunes of the Bassin.
I met him there to view some of his work. Jean Pierre poured the ice drinks on his small veranda. Behind the boathouse stretches a land of water. The tide fills the scene twice a day. He is a warm charming – and modest man with a romantic record of single minded, even solitary persistence – a quality he rates above all in any creation. Jean Pierre was the son of winemakers in Bordeaux, but had no interest in the craft and simply longed to be left alone long enough to draw, which, like David Hockney, he did relentlessly. But his parents were less than keen. At fifteen they insisted on his joining the school of technical drawing- he left as soon as he could and yearned for the life of creative art.
To support his vocation he became the miniature train driver who ferries visitors over the presque’ile from the embarcadère to the savage scene on the Atlantic. Here he found his little houseboat to live in. And his meticulous attention to detail has focussed on the world of the oysteries which he captures in wonderful detail. Jean Pierre has spent a life of dedication to the detail of art, his world of work pictures with their old tractors is only one part of his output. Fabrics and wallpapers commissioned by Pierre Frey have been a huge commercial success – and he is currently painting the house of Phillipe Starck on the esturary – as well as the still life of the gorgeous 1920s charm of the Hotel des Pins.
Jean- Pierre et moi
We are intrigued at what will emerge from the house boat next. T
This delightful artist might match his new ancient heroes. He has certainly proved himself a life enhancing master of everything he has hitherto turned his talented hand to.
