Maury Hervé | Contemporary Artist: Artworks & Biography

Maury Hervé

France
Painter
Best-sellers' artworks

687 followers !

Initially fascinated by insects, today I also paint giraffes herds, schools of fish or portraits of mice.

Herve grew up in the Southern Mediterranean region and nothing predestined him for an artistic career. He began his working life rather chaotically and carried out various professions before working in metallurgy for 8 years. It was only by chance that he began to paint. On moving house and decorating his apartment, he looked for art based on animals, but finding nothing, he began creating and decorating the walls with his own paintings. His family then discovered his talent and encouraged him to do become an artist. Various meetings and collaborations with decoration businesses gave Hervé the opportunity to paint freely and exhibit for the first time. He contributed to another artist’s ceramics work and the experience convinced him to embark on an artistic career. More fabulist than naturist, Hervé endows his animal characters with complexity, transforming the bestiary inherited from the medieval tradition, rock paintings and Far Eastern Art.

He begins his works with sand and a palette of pigments on brown paper and linen canvas. Then he refines the work using gouache, Indian ink and sometimes charcoal. As he works he diversifies his materials, even to the point of incorporating ashes or marble. Hervé enjoys this diversity, which enriches the colours, tones and effects. Throughout the evolution of his work, one constant remains: the natural tones which the artist keeps from the original use of sand. The animals seem to emerge from the earth and are surprised to be being watched. Hervé finds in these beings all the moods and feelings that he wishes to express and share with humour.