by Romina Ciulli and Carole Dazzi
The paintings created by the artist Ivan Arlaud are set in those interiors where moments of everyday life take place, made up of simple details and familiar objects, and are characterized by a palette of vivid colors and contrasting shades, which immerse the viewer in warm and luminous atmospheres. And, although there is no trace of human presence, the images emanate a sense of serenity, telling us evocative stories which have just begun, and all yet to be invented. This is the case in Le maison de vancances (2026), La véranda (2025), Étude Table Composée (2024), L’appartment rue Girardon (2023), Nature Morte aux Citrons (2023), Nice (2022), and Choix de Poems (2022). Let’s talk about it with the artist.
In your works you depict interior scenes, embellished with intimate and familiar details, such as coffee cups, flower vases, colorful tablecloths, and poetry books. Brief and luminous snapshots of everyday life, which seem to conceal something enigmatic, but actually allude to lived and reassuring moments. Can you tell us how your paintings are created?
They are created from scenes from everyday life, books, or images that I see. I feel the need to capture these fictional and real moments through the medium of painting, because there is a very interesting discrepancy between the idea that arises in the form of a sensation, and the result which depends on the medium and is never truly predictable.
Your work clearly juxtaposes warm pastel colors with vivid, intense hues. Using this palette allows you to create contrasts and luminous nuances, producing a pleasant, immersive sensory experience. How much does color influence your artistic practice? And what colors do you use most often?
It’s the starting point! I consider myself more of a colorist than a painter, because my paintings are composed of colors. That means I always seek chromatic balance, even if it means changing my palette midway through a painting. I try to find the perfect harmony of colors when I create a painting. The colors I use most often are what I consider to be gradation colors. “Light Naples Yellow” and “Titanium Buff” are colors that I incorporate into all my other colors to lighten them. Because they are present in all the other colors, they create a structural balance!
Your paintings often echo the influence of some French painters of the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. Among them, Matisse. In Nice (2022), for example, in addition to the obvious detail of the book, elements such as the open window, the decorated fabrics, or the intense and vibrant color choices seem to pay homage to the Fauve artist. So how has this painter influenced your work?
He was one of my main sources of inspiration. What struck me most after studying his work, was his ability to synthesize space. Most of my paintings reflect this approach. The majority of the spaces I create are recompositions of memories or sensations. I was also struck by his boldness in his use of color.
In the exhibition Luminous Interiors (2024) held at the Sobering Galerie, a recurring theme in your paintings, the still lifes, forcefully emerges. However, this seemingly immobile subject transforms the pictorial experience into an imaginative and creative contemplation, inspiring in the viewer a narrative/vision that, so to speak, is in flux. Why, then, did you choose this particular subject to express your artistic vision?
Before painting it, I didn’t think I’d like still life because, being a classic subject, it can seem a little outdated, but it’s quite the opposite. When you take the time to look closely at something, you notice all its depth and poetry. It’s a humble subject that allows for many possibilities. It’s the same when looking at a landscape, which is why I wanted to capture it in paint.
Another painter who has influenced your work is Cézanne. Infact, in works such as Étude Table Table Composée (2024), Nature Morte aux Citrons (2022), or Choix de Poems (2022), both the perspective and the geometric composition of the objects seem to recall the lesson of the great painter from Aix-en-Provence. How has this painter influenced your artistic path?
I don’t know why, but I’ve always been very sensitive to Cézanne’s still lifes. There is something deeply spontaneous and masterful about his work. You can feel the solitude of his gesture as well as its depth. I imagine I understand him a little.
The human figure is noticeably absent from your representation. However, this role seems to be assumed by the spectator himself who, almost like an invisible presence, observes the narration through a sort of mirror/painting. It is as if, drawing on his own interiority, he himself creates an imagery which is sometimes fantastic, sometimes realistic. Let’s think, for example, of works like Orange à la fenetre (2023), or L’appartement rue Girardon (2023). So, who is the protagonist of your paintings? Can you tell us about him?
That sums it up perfectly! I really see painting as a space where the viewer enters and sits next to the painter to experience/contemplate the scene. This person is a loner, it’s everyone. I like the idea that my paintings are composed in the solitude of my studio and that, even in a group, it is always a single person who sees and experiences it. The person is free to bring their own baggage to it and create their own narrative based on the few clues I leave behind.
In the exhibition Memory Rooms (2025), also at the Sobering Galerie, your works are dedicated to the theme of memory instead. In Villa méditerranéenne (2025), La Véranda (2025), and Sous le Porche (2025), memories resurface through a series of details, often idealized. What role does the concept of memory play in your work?
I think that, deep down, this remains the main theme in my work. I have embarked on the process of archiving myself indirectly. Each painting is a piece of me. Whether it’s a book, a scene, or an object, there will always be a little something that belongs to me in each painting. It’s a way of existing a little bit through all the canvases.
Your paintings contain many references to art and culture. Contexts framed as photographs, references to cinema, literature, and music. Why these references?
This gesture ties in with my previous answer. What I depict in my paintings are certainly aesthetic objects/subjects, but above all they are things that I want to capture because they are part of who I am. My reading, my references, objects that I feel close to. All of these are a bit like fragmented, secondary self-portraits, because the main subject is atmosphere and harmony.
Besides those already mentioned, are there other artists who inspire your work?
That’s one of the most difficult questions I have to face! If I had to answer with painters, I would say that I really like Oscar Ghiglia, Cuno Amiet, Suzanne Valadon, Vanessa Bell, Felice Casorati, Marie Laurencin, but there are many others! I am greatly influenced by music, cinema, sculpture and photography. But my answer would be too long!
Can you tell us about your future projects?
There are several wonderful international art exhibitions and fairs coming up! I’ve been writing a novel for over two years now. I hope to finish it soon, but I can’t say any more about it at the moment.