The artist
Jacky Buravant
Painter of Martigues, died in 2016 aged 64
A late calling
Jacky Buravant came to painting late, once his working life was over. A “profound questioning” (« profonde remise en question ») led him to look for a way to fill his time and to express long-held emotions.
He called himself “entirely self-taught”. For months he silently watched Roger Mamano, whom he regarded as his master, at work in his small studio near place Mirabeau. From him he took his technique: the palette knife, “the field in which I express myself best”.
The studio on rue Galinière
His small, rustic studio adjoined L'Arlequin, described by La Provence as the oldest shop in Martigues. He painted there “up to ten hours a day, every day of the year”. The walls were covered with paintings, down to the floor.
There, he said, he found his “line of life”, without forgetting his roots in Port-de-Bouc.
Martigues, again and again
He painted what surrounded the studio: quai Brescon, the Miroir aux oiseaux, the church of La Madeleine, quai Poterne and its house with the “gendarme's hat”. Martigues above all, its light, canals, boats and fishermen, but also Provence, the Camargue and shepherding.
La Provence recalls that Ziem, Dufy, Picabia and Van Gogh had also fallen for the charm of the town.
Exhibition
His paintings were exhibited at Provence Art Gallery, in Martigues. Jacky Buravant died in 2016, aged 64.
Sources
- Audrey Letellier, « L'atelier de Jacky Buravant, rue Galinière, un “petit monde” », La Provence, Martigues-Istres edition, 22 February 2015. Quotations translated from French.
- Death notice, Martigues, March 2016.