Born in 1981 in Orléans, Benoit Havard started drawing and painting at the age of six. In 1998, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts de Cherbourg, where Lejeune and Valadié became his teachers. By the age of 19, he was painting full-time, first exploring watercolours on trips to Morocco and eventually settling into working with oils and a palette knife. Today, Benoit Havard creates dreamy, luminescent urban landscapes that radiate warmth and energy. The artist draws his imagination from his travels. He first photographs realistic urban scenes and then draws out all their emotional power. “The idea is to bring the subject into my own world”, explains the artist. His paintings are spontaneous works based on a study of light and contrasts more than on the minutiae of details. Under the sharp stroke of a palette knife, playing with transparency, streaks, and fades to create texture and movement, New York, London or Paris appear in their purest shape and are saturated with colours. The harmony he creates, from warm colours to blue greys, slowly pushes his creations towards abstraction.