PEN DUICK VI

"(...) When I first started taking orders from Tabarly, I grasped how totally inexperienced I was in racing. In the way that later, I would be considered as a sailor in the world of artists, at that time I was seen as the artist on board by my fellow crewmembers. But it turned out that the ocean-sailing milieu was paradoxically far more open to atypical backgrounds than the arts circle! All that mattered was that you did your job well… And I had a flair for it, it seemed.

It was on board the Pen Duick VI that I tackled a new form of artistic expression: I enriched my palette with the practice of photography, initially to earn a living. We were fed and housed on board, but not paid. I’d sell my illustrated reports, mainly to sailing magazines. My models were the boys on board. Later, Éric found it really positive to have an artist on his ship and he suggested that I illustrate his Guide de manœuvre. So we worked on the book while sailing through the Marquesas, the Tuamotu, Gambier and Austral Islands, up to Tahiti."

Extract from Œuvres vagabondes, 2016, Éditions Gallimard