If he hadn’t been a sculptor, Eric Valat would have been a poet. But as the artist doesn’t care for boundaries, he has fun incorporating poetry in the material he assembles and creates in the fire of his workshop.
Cheval Colin (bronze), Eric Valat
Born into a family of carpenters, Eric Valat started to work with wood, the “family’s raw material”. As soon as he graduated from Toulouse School of Fine Arts, he settled his workshop in a small town next to the Occitan capital. On a plot of land he just bought, he discovers a pile of old iron objects, on which he immediately starts working.
From this fortuitous encounter between artist and material, will emerge a bestiary which won’t cease to develop : owl, cat, bird, elephant, bull, horse…They are all made of used elements, packed with a past life and “vibrations” which will determine how the sculptor will use them. He will combine them with synthetic materials, to get to a construction where each separate part disappears to create a whole: “I like the fact that my sculptures are not looked on as different elements joined together. I like to take people down a more poetic road to discover my work.”
Indeed, his strange animals strike us first with the drive that seems to animate them: they wander peacefully, or rush, when they are not stopping to look up into the sky for answers on their purpose of living. In short, they invite us to tell stories and create our own tales…
>>> View Eric Valat’s online gallery <<<
Below, some pictures taken during our visit at Eric Valat‘s worshop.
