3...What is the greatest aspect of working as an artist?
Frédéric: The freedom. The pleasure to achieve a satisfactory result, by high standards.

4...As an artist, what does “success” mean to you? “Creativity”?

Frédéric: Success depends on so many random factors . . . I have the ambition to succeed with my painting at the time of working on it. Social success, if it arrives before the accomplishment of a deeper self, disrupts the path. It paralyses the possibilities, aspiring (relegating) an artist to repetition.

When the creativity is not in tune with the development, it slows the interior maturing of the being, it (then becomes) just a money game.

5...From where do you draw inspiration? Is there a place you go to feel inspired? Who are some other artists, past or present, that you admire?

Frédéric: My main source of inspiration lies in the work itself. Sometimes the images, generated by those already painted, come to me while walking. At the present time they are in me constantly, I live with a small inner museum of my works to come.

I admire all the painters, all the artists, who manage to create a truly personal work.

6...How would you describe your style? How has your style evolved over time?

Frédéric: A kind of abstract expressionism in a search for lightness and transparency.

I’ve always practiced abstraction alongside the figurative work with a model, considering the reality as a source of a primary emotion. The more abstract my paintings become, the closer I feel to the emotion given to me by the real.

7...What are some of your favorite pieces, and why? Which is your most personal piece?

Frédéric: My latest paintings are what I naturally consider the closest to my actual sentiments. The next ones, that live in my head, will be even closer to me. It seems to me that what I am and what I am starting to be able to do, become more and more one and the same thing.

8...What has been one of the most difficult aspects of working as an artist? What advice do you have for people experiencing similar difficulties?

Frédéric: For me one of the most difficult aspects has been to know what I am, to get rid of all the invasive and contradictory superego. To know what I want based on what I am, at the same time leaving a free field for the development of the being. Then to learn how to accomplish it technically.

Advice? Try to have enough self-confidence and aim to find in the depths of oneself what is unique that deserves to be painted, and that has never been done before by somebody else.

9...What is the greatest aspect of working as an artist?

Frédéric: The freedom. The pleasure to achieve a satisfactory result, by high standards.

10...Where do you see the field heading in the next 10 years?

Frédéric: No idea. I am not concerned about that.

All art featured in this interview © Frederic Belaubre
— Please do not copy art from this website —