FRANCOIS LAVAUD – A SHORT HISTORY

I was born in Paris in 1942. I do not remember a time when I was not painting. In 1946 there is one of my earlier paintings – Le Rat des champs (after La Fontaine).

I was privileged to know the work of a great artist former student of Ecole des Beaux Arts, Raoul Deschamps, who would eventually do my portrait.

As a teenager I was introduced to Fontanarosa who at that time in Paris enjoyed a good reputation. On view of some of my work, he advised me to try to join Ecole des Arts Decoratives rather than Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Eventually I joined the National College of Art of Ireland. I was under the professor of painting Maurice McGonigal who was also President of the Hibernian Academy, having for a short time followed the drawing class of George Collie.

I also did there some sculptures under the Professor Herkner and anatomy with Sean Keating. They were all formidable teachers.
In 1962 I did some sketches in the Sahara Desert (one of them is in the exhibition) and in 1965 I met in Paris the artist Shwartz-Abys, who had during the war restored the direction of a school of tapestry in Northern Ireland.

Some of my paintings are in France, Mauritius, Luxembourg, England, Washington and Ireland. More recent exhibitions where, in the Hove Club, Sacred Heart Church and Renaissance Gallery.

This exhibition is a retrospective of more than 70 years of journeying through the different periods.