Jean-Philippe Boucicaut , photographer and painter, started painting at age 7 and was given his first camera when he was 10 by his father, an Emmy Award winning documentary film producer and editor. Both his grandfathers were photographers and his father’s cousin was the late iconic painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Boucicaut began his professional art career as a junior designer for Donna Karan Menswear Collection where he was an illustrator, photographed street trends, and assisted in casting seasonal runway shows. It was through Donna Karan that Boucicaut was photographed by renowned photographer Peter Lindbergh and began acting in independent films and television commercials. Boucicaut said in his spare time “I had a lot of time to pick up a paintbrush.” He chose to paint on 5 ft by 4 ft unstretched, ungessoed canvas.
The artist said his work “ taps into the unknown, having an artistic faith in the invisible and the unseen.” Boucicaut said he has been influenced “by actors and the art world in unexpected, private places.” Since his father is a documentary film maker, he has met lots of accomplished individuals.“It’s only about the work – the celebrity stuff makes for unhappy.”
In his recent work the artist has focused on-site specific paintings in Los Angeles and New York City. Boucicaut has also painted a series of five murals on propane tanks which dot the hills of Topanga. The artist has commissions for five additional murals in the canyon.
Client Sinisa Spajic reflects on Boucicaut’s propane murals: “Having an artist such as JP imbue these cylindrical canvases with the sensitivity of his works in which he incorporates the personal visions of each ‘owner’ into his own, not only brings out the beauty of the form, but it also creates a collective neighborhood sense of art and space.”
The artist created an image of Farrah Fawcett that “felt to me as iconic as her famous swimsuit poster but conveys more of the depth of the real person beneath the beauty.” Boucicaut said he could not have painted the work “without having seen the inspiring and heartbreaking documentary on her fight with cancer.”
For the artist “California allows you the space to dream uninterruptedly. Los Angeles is space while New York is LA standing.” Boucicaut has exhibited his work in Los Angeles and New York.
Boucicaut’s website: jpbnyc.foliosnap.com
