During November 2009, Jean Claude Boutrouille will be exhibiting his work at MarziArt International Gallery in Hamburg. Peek into the Lighthouse Point garage of Jean Claude Boutrouille and it's like stepping into a studio. Walls and easels are stacked with paintings drying, canvases being primed or stored. Paint-encrusted saw horses support even more canvases. But Boutrouille is as new to the discipline as he is to Lighthouse Point. Jean Claude Boutrouille has been a Premiere Portfolio artist at absolutearts.com since
View more of Jean Claude Boutrouille's work in his Portfolio at absoltuearts.com absolutearts.com/jboutrouil.
Born in Orleans, 50 minutes south of Paris, the pragmatic painter spent a productive career as a pharmacist in France, then Martinique. His soul, however, belonged to art - and his heart to America. He filled his house with original art by friends. He devoured books about famous artists. He studied their technique and their philosophies. In 1990, he moved to Charleston, S.C. and in 1998, he and wife Jacqueline, now a psychiatrist, became citizens.
Jacqueline worked as an addiction counselor. Jean Claude handled the billing and accounting for his wife's practice as he bought and sold art. When the World Trade Center was bombed, however, Boutrouille was forced to become an artist himself - not just because he felt the pain, but because the event eviscerated the stock market and art market.
"I knew that was the end of collecting, and I decided paint," he said. "And it was one way to understand what painters were really doing."
His quest has taken Boutrouille down interesting roads. Hanging adjacent to a self-portrait in black oil on canvas by Pablo Picasso in his living room is Boutrouille's very credible version of himself in the same style. "It's a joke," he explains.
Five years after he began painting, he started to be happy with the results. His friends also were impressed.
Thirty years ago, The Left Bank restaurant was as famous for its art as its menu. Today, the former owner, Chef Jean Pierre runs a cooking school on Federal Highway, and displays two of Boutrouille's paintings. "People are interested," Pierre said. "They look nice."
When Boutrouille discovered the Internet in 2008, his market opened. "As a painter, I think I start to be good," he said Sept. 2. "I've had 5,835 page hits in seven days."
Boutrouille in November will be one of four painters exhibited at Marziart International Gallery in Hamburg, Germany. Still, he doesn't take himself too seriously. Among the 99 media listed o n his web site: Neon, tattoos, and furniture.
"I have decided to drink a lot, take drugs and die famous," he said. "Then the prices will go up."
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