Lines, and Faceless Silhouettes to Understand the Unknown.

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To get into Patrick Cambolin's perspective, a line or timeline must be followed. A timeline of his life, of his encounters, of his crushes, and the lines that he chooses to interpret the world around us.

Born in 1947 and graduated in Graphic Arts and Plastic Arts, Patrick Cambolin carries out, in parallel to his artistic career, a professional life in the field of communication. He works as artistic director as well as creative director in big French and foreign agencies in Paris. Today he divides his life between Sardinia and Burgundy, where he works as a graphic consultant for wineries.

From his life spent at the heart of the Latin Quarter, he has developed a taste to observe the crowd and search for silhouettes that reflect elegance. The line is also what structures and reveals the form, as in the series of portraits "known/unknown" where it underlines the silhouette, melted in the color and the abstraction, and gives the subject strength and presence. In the portrait, the artist only focuses on the silhouette, leaving the subjects faceless transforming them into "strangers".

The process is followed by using two-colored backgrounds; with a fine line, the artist redraws the clothes, giving a feeling of presence that is sublimated by this simple line that hems in the outline of the characters. This graphic treatment gives each of them some psychological traits that make us recognize in them characters that are familiar to us, it is then that they become "known". The creations of Patrick Cambolin, very graphic, show the elegance of the lines that surround us.

Cover image: Patrick Cambolin. Known/Uknown nº15, 2022. Courtesy of Galerie Ars Essentia

Written by: Cedric LE BORGNE, Ars Essentia Art Gallery

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