Then comes the moment when you can’t resist it. Blow up the still, the smooth. Turn green reflections into white foam and purple shadows. Draw a perfect circle of spray.

“Hair Splash” ©AntoineRenault2015 Acrylic on canvas 100x100cm

I like the posture in this picture.

“Marée haute” ©AntoineRenault2015 acrylic on canvas 70x50cm

August bath on the rocks. Photographed under October sun. “La Clère” beach, Noirmoutier.

“Marée basse” ©AntoineRenault2015 acrylic on canvas 70x50cm

No better place to paint than my ocean side studio in Noirmoutier.

Coming out of the blue, in yellow, by a late August afternoon. La Clère beach. Hot sun, warm sand. Dip into the water to watch the kids. Running back to the beach, playing with the shore break. Those days, shadows can be beautiful.

“Nice hat!” ©AntoineRenault2015 Acrylic on canvas 100x70cm

Going back to the same place again. That’s fine. Sometimes it can be OK. This pier did not change. A bit more rusty after 2 years. It looks like it does not even care about the scary East wind storms.

™ Testing the Water – ©ARenault2015 – 40x60cm

At the foot of the coolest restaurant on earth, it keeps on welcoming one or 2 little boats a day during high season. That’s where I took most of the photographs that inspired my 2014 paintings series. Water transparency is sublime. You fake you’re not sure you want to dive again… Let’s face it: you’re not feeling so bad either, on those warm old boards, whitened by the salt. Softly sanded by years of bare foot visitors bringing fresh fish and beer.

Sailing in very light winds requires quite some talent. Connivance with the streams. Know his mount. How her shape behaves through a slow motion swell? How she react to soft touch on the bar? The spinnaker shines, proud to be the one engine. The keel stretches, released. So few bubbles at the surface of this glassy sea? Less than 3 knots… Take it easy.

™ Chillin’in the blue ©ARenault2015 100x100cm

Hmmm… would make a nice name for a cocktail.

Not sure what those 2 little grasshoppers were looking at. That was North of the “Cob” rocks. If you want to know what this rock looks like, watch the trailer of the freshly released movie  Boomerang, featuring the charming Mélanie Laurent.

I know they were waiting for their GrandPa to sail back from another fishing afterenoon in his dear home made wooden dinghy. Sterna.Thermal wind is over. Laying comfortably at the edge, forcing the boat to heel over in order to optimize its trail. The very last miles can last an eternity. Beach is empty. Sun lower. Oranger. All right, let’s wait for an eternity.. till the aperitif time!

This painting was born on a quiet beach of Amorgos, Greece. A photograph taken from the edge of a fragile pier.

Pier of Levrossos beach

Powerful reflections playing with surface create by contrast this dark emerald green. My daughter flies right under the surface. Varnish was not dry yet when the painting was booked by a charming collector from Florida. She allowed me to feature it in two parisian exhibitions before shipping it above the atlantic ocean.

Antoine Renault’s painting – cover of the art issue of 71% magazine

A year later, the art director of “71%” asks for the copyrights in order to make the cover of a special art issue of his magazine. By the way, I quite like the name of it. Man is a being of water (65%) living on a planet of water (71%). Readers of this magazine enjoy it in their very own way, sailing on yachts of 150 feet and above. They will be 10 000 of them flipping this magazine through, in english or mandarin language.

In case you can’t own that kind of boat yet, you can still order the magazine there 🙂