"Feet firmly anchored on the ground,
but head in the stars..."
Jean-Philippe Richard

Originally, there is no sketch, just the inert matter, his sculptor profession, his know-how, ans his desire to give birth to a form with gracious lines. To give birth to the life from only one line as said Hokusai.
The first young girl emerges from the world down below, from this earth which is part of her and from which she cannot separate" entrusts the artist in his book "Jean-Philippe Richard became sculptor".
The bodies are worked from the knees, the arms are stuck to the body, the woman is born from the earth such a crysalis which come out of its cocoon.

Recently, Jean-Philippe Richard carifies the drawing of the hands and the breast of its statues, the face reveals for to open on the world. The faces are sketched. They correspond to a stereotype, a female ideal with regular lines, harmonious.The body line are fluid, slim rewarding the sculptures of a character nearly ethereal.

These qualifiers are not opposed to individualisation. The sculptor gave to each one a first name : Margot, Isabeau, Anais, Rose, Mélissandre, Chloé, Charlotte, Marina...

One of them, the first to welcome the visitors is named Justine or Isis.
Isis in memory of Phoenician who venerated in these places the Egyptian goddess of the fertility and eternity. Several people affirm that she would have given his name to the village.

From 1972 to 1989, Jean-Philippe Richard worked on differents supports and acquired an experience in numerous technique of "art appliqué" : oil painting, mosaic of stones in fresco or in "sleeping mat", silk-screen printing, etching on limetsones, high relief of architecture...
In 1990, he installs his workshop in Mirabel aux Baronnies in the Drôme in France where he is devoted to the female statuary. This research allows him to explore the mysteries of feminity. His wives are steeped of eternity, wheter they are made in bronze, crystal or earth. It is from this last matter which he calls "dust of stars" that the artist gave to them the life.
The artist took part in numerous exhibitions, Paris "Espace création", Salon des Seigneurs de l'Art d'Arles, 2ème salon d'Art plastique ACEA in Barcelona, l'Artexpo salon international in New York...
Its sculptures are permanently in many French or foreign galleries, Gallery Jean-Philippe Richard in Saint Remy de Provence, Gallery le Baron in Saint Paul de Vence, Gallery Chabanian in Megeve and in Honfleur, restaurant du rond point des Champs Elysées in Paris, Gallery de Provence in New York and at the S.R. Brennen Gallery of Palm Desert in California.

The website of Jean-Philippe Richard
www.richardsculpteur.com

jph.richard@wanadoo.fr