Art is an integral part of life for Roger Camous, who possesses a deep-rooted passion for painting. He began taking drawing lessons in his hometown of Nice and went on to win the Grand Prix de Dessin de la Méditerranée aged 17. Following a career in architecture and design in Montreal, he returned to painting upon retirement, creating exhibitions for which he travels all over the world.
His biggest inspirations? The painters of the Renaissance whom he likes to call “the great masters”, the south of France, Japan and its oriental culture. Women are the main protagonists of his artwork since he believes they are the best representation of humanity and family as a result of their femininity and their esthetic of expressing emotions. Camous also declares that these women, somewhat mystical, sensual, and mysterious, represent a universal human being with the ambiguity of their identity, but also a feeling of youth, dreaming and optimism which he has been able to preserve over time.
One of his greatest wishes is to place the human as a being which is totally integrated with nature, in a way that is equal to all others. That’s why he enjoys mixing the realistic and the abstract, creating a real symbiosis between the two. Another of his desires is to integrate Japanese culture into his paintings; something which has seen him evolve personally as well as artistically after making the decision to immerse himself completely in this culture for a year, leaving his mentality and technique forever changed.
His greatest asset is perhaps his extremely rich palette of colors which is very warm and representative of the environment which inspires him. From Mediterranean blue, reminiscent of the beauty of the south of France, to the omnipresent clay hue in the skin tone of the women at the forefront of his creations, the Camous palette conveys a lightness and warmth which evokes our most precious memories of summer.