mathieu laca color

[In Progress] Clara and Robert Schumann, 2019

Fluo Colors - The Secret Behind the Vibrancy of My Upcoming Paintings

Lately, I've been dabbling in fluo color washes. As a painter known for my very toned-down palette, it may seem like a radical shift. It’s not.


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Despite the striking bursts of color, I haven’t radically changed my palette. I just start with fluo colors instead of the bright white of the gesso. 

This pushes me to paint everything in reaction to that strong color. It shakes my painterly habits a lot!

Rubens and Ingres used to paint their figures on a very bright red. Why? Oil paint becoming translucent with time, the red came through, it giving their figures depth and life, as if blood was pulsing through their veins.

I find that fluorescent glazes give a sort of supernatural light to paintings. It’s as if the painting was lit from behind, as if it had a light of its own. I saw this in the works of Kim Dorland and I thought I would steal it.

Artists who grow steal all the time from everywhere. The real problem isn’t theft. To live is to borrow.

The problem is imitation. Artists who imitate their own work are artists who have stopped growing. I want to grow until the end. For a painter, I’m still a baby.

Here are a few pics of works in their early stage. I’m not showing finished pieces not to spoil them.

These works will be part of my upcoming exhibition in Toronto in November. Come see them in the flesh!

laca color

[In Progress] Johannes Brahms (young), 2019

laca process


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