The fleetingness of a movement, the lightness of a flight, the grace of a silhouette, the depth of a gaze, the power of a scent awakens our senses.

The animal world has long been a source of inspiration for my drawings and watercolours. The discovery of sculpture was a revelation in the sudden life that volumes made more present, palpable and instinctive.

My profession as a vet requires me to understand anatomy, but also to observe and feel animals as closely as possible. Living in the countryside between the Doubs and the Jura means I can wander through forests that are still wild, where encounters with wildlife are as obvious as the desire to sculpt them. I let myself be guided by my sensations: the memory of a woodcock with immense wings and a huge beak, the electric blue glitter of a kingfisher on the lookout, the stalking of a fox with its nose to the wind, the furtive silhouette of a lynx, the thunderous flight of a capercaillie, the hazel grouse lurking on the ground. Sometimes it takes a while for a project to mature, but then it becomes imperative to carry it out.

It gives me real pleasure to bring this metal to life, to see it bend, assemble and fuse, until its shapes and materiality finally evoke energy.

Some of my originals are made in numbered bronzes at the Deroyaume foundry (Villers sur Port-70), which allows me to take the colour elsewhere.

The foundry is a wonderful, magical world where molten metal embodies life. I spend a lot of time there chiselling my bronzes. It’s a bit like my second studio, because I’m particularly welcome there.

May this marvellous wild world remain the source of our inspiration and never become anything more than a distant memory!