Yann Letestu

His art

Yann Letestu’s representational art is both clearly personified and indefinite. The apparent paradox goes on in the artist’s eternal quest for equilibrium: his technique is both classical and intuitive, the minute details of his characters contrast with the silent vastness of his backdrops and his on-going travelling theme is nostalgic and yet hopeful.

His technique

“I find my maps in antique dealer shops and mount them on canvas via a process called marouflage. The map is the base of my art. Thereon, the other elements of the painting appear to me and I paint them using watercolor and acrylic. I only use five to six colors, whether the subjects are from Asia, Africa, Brittany or the South of France. Despite the maps, there are no clear-cut geographical references. I want everyone to identify with the subject matter and not feel enclosed within a given space. I seek to stimulate their imagination and their personal memories.”

His life

As an artist, Yann Letestu had his first light-bulb moment at nine while traveling with his family in a sailing boat across the Atlantic Ocean from Marseilles to Venezuela. He knew then and there that drawing and painting were his life. He studied the fine arts in Orleans in 2001 but has been selling his art work since the age of sixteen. Since then, he has been painting, illustrating and exhibiting in fairs and galleries, and even had a book of paintings published.