Michel Rauscher, 1957 | Abstract Figurative painter

Michel Rauscher painter and photographer, born in Alsace is a passionate autodidact. Great traveler, he takes his endless curiosity in regions, on land that fascinated him in search of color, light and authenticity, with a predilection for the African continent.
His need for discovery and the interpretation of dreams become sources of inspiration for his painting. It evokes the beauty of the everyday magic of ordinary, the emotion of the moment. He expresses his artistic sensibility with timeless themes, stylized characters in cracked places, evocative and poetic silhouettes causing emotion and enthusiasm.

Michel Rauscher is mesmerized by the mystery, the light and colors of Africa and Asia.

"I like to blend into the local scene and observe the past being reborn from the cover of the present".

Working primarily with oil on wood and canvas, Michel creates stylized scenes of African life and elsewhere, complete with its sadness, joys and mystery. His pieces have been exhibited throughout France, including Paris, Lyon and Strasbourg, as well as Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands and he has traveled extensively throughout Asia. His paintings know no boundaries, and are an interpretation of his dreams, his passions, and of places that are everywhere and nowhere. Michel has been commissioned by Amnesty International to create brochures and cards.

• THE CREATION

My inspiration arose from the fusion of my thoughts and lived moments. Creation releases certain emotions, it prohibits the stifle or silence.

Each painting is a step of walking on a path of hope. It contains the echo of words and memories of smiles. A gesture, lines and colors offered to our sight become a dialogue. The space opens, we guess the wind, we forget the time. Light radiates.

I forget what surrounds the canvas. I'm lost, I sink into it. I dream.

Touching my paintings with the tip of my brush in a sensual communion, I rise to characters who inhabit cracked spaces. They come from my memories of men with original traditions.

Every moment of painting is a journey, an issue that wakes up the whole man. Each travel colors my memory, serves me as a mirror to look deep within myself. Each trip invites me to walk without feeling fatigue, soothing my moods.

• WANDERING

Light and shadows enter my mind, draw marks on the adobe walls that the sun colors in tan and ocher.

I visited blue cities, white towns surrounded by golden sands, cities of dreams. Animals horned by crescent moons moving in a cloud of dust magnified by the sun. The wind stirs the embers, the air is adorned with a transparent vapor of evening.

Mysterious wanderings on land that fascinates and absorbs me.

But also, there is the fear of depression, rebellion, disillusionment of man, the greedy of power, hostile nature.

The meeting of impostors whose charm breaks after deceit.

I carry the memory of the smell of earth and water, hot stone and burned wood. Memories selected by bits of string, rusted wire.

I let myself be seduced by the strangeness that carries the wind.

I am a seeker of recesses that magnify the ordinary, a white colorist who loves black.

• DREAMS AND REALITY

At twenty, I arrived in Tangier, crossing the gateway to Africa. I was then seized by the irreversible virus of curiosity, I had to explore the unknown, discover contrasting country which combines the worst and laughter, warmth and tears.

The journey begins long before the day when you take the road, when hearing a need for space, light, unremitting exchange and a quest for yourself.

For those who really want, the appearance of the world reveals its intimate splendor and timeless magic drawn from the sanctuary of origins. The world fascinates me and amazes me, this is a dream decor with its graceful puzzles.

The richness of the African is not palpable, it is all in the meanings and secrets that imperceptible holders are diviners, healers, seers, potters, marabouts, blacksmiths, weavers, tanners, trackers and insiders.

Why did I go where the emotion is so alive and powerful?

In return, I feel distraught, unable to regain my minds, overwhelmed by too many memories of life and survival. The paintings are born well after.