You do not become an artist, you're simply born that way.

You're an artists in your reactions, in your mind,

in your way of living.

From the outset you exist on another planet,

running the risk of appearing to some as living on the fringe of society.

Conversly, when your name becomes known,

it is easy to say that you have become commercial,

as if, to be a "real artist", you are cursed into having to depend on

the benevolence of certain cultural institutions

for grants in order to subsist.

Personnaly, I try to pay no heed either to the praise

or to the criticism my work may inspire.

To be ever more demanding with yourself,

with those who represent you,

with the image you convey,

not wanting to go too fast,

not seeking inspiration from any passing fashion,

to avoid cheating.

The only truth which will remain in time and that will prove your renown is : your work.

 

As a child, then a studiant at the Art High School

in the French town of Orange,

I already knew I would become an artist.

As soon as I could paint I used my brushes up to the very last bristle !

At the age of 12, I took my first painting lessons, and at 16,

I attended classes at the Avignon School of Beaux Arts

before subsequently becoming a full-time student at that institution.

Quickly, however, my rebellious spirit

had difficulty in accepting the standard artistic trends.

At 20, I decided to go to Corsica,

the Island of Beauty that since I have never wanted to leave.

I stopped painting for the next ten years.

It's in 1988 that my whole life was to change,

on the occasion of the Lila Acheson Wallace Grand Prix

organised by the Reader's Digest Foundation

at the Chaillot Palace in Paris.

It was at that moment that I decided I was going to devote my life to

Painting.

 

Pierre Farel was born in Orange in the south of France. Former student at the Avignon School of "Beaux Arts", he now lives and works in the Mediterranean Island of Corsica. To date, he has created 1600 oil paintings, 180 watercolours and oil on paper, 16 lithographs, 1 Art book with 158 pages, 2 jewellery collections, 2 jazz CD covers, 1 Corsican CD « Distinu », a bronze sculpture, a wine label, the covers of 4 novels, illustrations for poems and 35 reproductions of his oil paintings have been edited by Braun editions.

He has exhibited on numerous occasions in Paris, London, Marseilles, Lyons, Saint Paul de Vence, Avignon, Cassis, Annecy, Draguignan, Chartres, Bordeaux, Nancy, in Corsica and on the French Riviera as well as in the international cities of New-York, Miami, Barcelona, Brussels, Berlin, Lausanne, Hamburg, Beijing, Hong-Kong and Shanghai.