“My favourite colour? Life!”

Bernard Cadène
A thousand and one colours in play

This man, who paints in music what his heart sings to him, considers that art itself and by itself is freedom. “Long live freedom! Especially mine!” can clearly be seen spray-painted on his studio wall. Beneath the varnish, his motto, which reflects his apparently light, carefree and provocative style of painting, conceals the depth of a bottomless well. Even more than a real manifesto, freedom determines Cadène’s entire world: his painting, his artist’s lair and his life.  

From his time spent studying Fine Art in Toulouse, his teachers remember him as a very free and witty student who, as soon as he got the chance, would escape his cage to do his own thing. Once he had obtained his diploma to teach Fine Art drawing, Cadène too had a go at teaching. However, the idea of a fully mapped out career filled him with anxiety and he abandoned teaching on the second day, striking himself off the register for the rest of his life. This is just one  story, but it shows us that Bernard is as free as art itself!

His painting is like him: free, whimsical, optimistic, often fiery and exuberant, and sometimes explosive and violent. The colour springs from his brush and comes alive on the canvas, giving life to a story. His works are a symphony and he is the conductor. There is no silence in Cadène’s paintings, there is only life... in all its forms.

Read more