Artist's Biography
As the great grandson of artist Ivan Chichkine, whose work hangs in the Museum of St. Petersburg, Christian Nepo has art in his blood. A student of Impressionism and advocate of painting “en plein air,” Nepo (as he signs his paintings) began painting seascapes and beach scenes during his frequent holidays and visits to the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. Many of his paintings are reminiscent of pre-impressionism, with ominous skies, perfectly captured light, loose and delicate brushwork, and dabs of pure color.
The artist lives with his wife Bernadette in a lovely town outside of Aix en Provence and has been painting for over 40 years. His most recent awards have included the first prize Albert Camus award in Lourmarin and the Marcel Arnaud prize in Aix, as well as his 1998 prize of the Van Loo award which resulted in the acquisition of his painting by the Museum of Aix (le Musée du Vieil Aix). He exhibits permanently in a gallery in St. Remy and his work has been featured in shows in Geneva, Marseille, Nashville, New York, Nice, and Paris.
One of Nepo’s most admired qualities is his range of art. Shortly after nine of his paintings were lost in a shipment from Marseille to Atlanta, the artist became demoralized and stopped painting for several months. When I urged him to get back to work and told him I would personally fly over to pick up his work, I was delighted to discover that after months of “fixing to,” he had not only recovered from his loss, but had bounced back with a new and joyous approach to his art, enjoying more freedom than ever before. The resulting canvases were light and airy oils, with the freshness and spontaneity of his gouaches.
Visiting his studio in the early evening, with its magnificent sunsets and sweeping westerly views of the Luberon and Alpilles mountains, one understands how this artist could be such a master of light and sky, and why his little masterpieces have a jewel-like luminescent quality.
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