Thomas Berthuel-Bonnes

For 18 years now, Thomas’s commitment to painting has been total and absolute. Having just graduated from the Bayard Academy of Drawing and the Toulouse School of Photography, he gained experience as a copywriter at Publicis Paris, and then directed a short film, “R255,” presented at the “Court devant” festival in Paris in 2009. His firstexperience exhibiting art was in Paris, but in search of a studio, he established his practice in his native southern France, and never left it again. First, in Bayard’s street in Toulouse, his little chaotic space; then Cazeres-sur-Garonne, his immense studio, his creative emancipation; then Roques-sur-Garonne, his family growing, and his painting too. Then came Baiona, his connection with the ocean, the long-awaited element! This return to his roots was a revelation, a true commitment, punctuated by the inspirations inherent in the various jobs he has held (tools, supports, pizza boxes, cleaning squeegees, stones from the quarries south of Toulouse, etc.). Exhibitions followed, from cultural centers to galleries in Toulouse, Paris, London, and even the Museum of Contemporary Art in Martres-Tolosane. A true cultural springboard in Occitania, his works were then exported across the Atlantic, to be represented internationally by a Californian gallery.

The way that Thomas paints, using a large palette knife on Belgian linen, emphasizes form and movement. The artist layers these individual but large gestures one on top of the other creating texture in the overlapping forms. Above all, his painting evolved, from the reproduction of the first French stamp (Cérès 1948), to the work of motifs, through to colorist work, and finally the Blue Color. Since his beginnings, he has worked on a wave-like forms that he repeats. This practice was enriched when he discovered the work of Oscar Niemeyer, particularly his Brazilian creation, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi. Thomas’s gestures are constructed and thought out, but he sometimes lets nature take its course, making way for the painting. “Painting, painting, nothing else! His abstract work always interprets, presents, but never represents. This 2025 year will be rich in events for the artist, with the participation in an auction for the “Canal du Midi”, listed as a UNESCO international heritage site. The invitation of honor for the 10 years of contemporary art in Occitania in France His return to California, and many other collaborations in progress. Currently represented in France by Maison Sanat in the Ré island, in Spain by Base Bilbao Galerie in Bilbao, in the United States by L&G Projects in La Jolla, and in Abidjan and Dubai by the Studer gallery.