JEAN FRANCOIS DETAILLE
PLEIN OCEAN PAINTING
Jean Francois is professional artist and certified diving instructor since 1979, he learned his first steps in free diving in the Mediterranean sea mid 1970’s and earned his first certifications in scuba diving at the CIP BENDOR, in the island of Bendor, in the Var region in France. His mentor was Claude Arzillier, the very first scuba diving instructor and with the first scuba diving school in the world created by La Spirotechnique in 1960. It was a few miles away from Bendor in Sanary that Jacques Cousteau tested his co invention ( co inventor: Emile Gagnan) the “Aqualung” the earliest version of the scuba gear, opening the world to the secrets of the seven seas. Jean Francois portrait of Jacques Cousteau hangs in the Musee de la plongee in Sanary, Var, France.
Jean Francois has pioneered a few art styles ( http://www.extremeart.com ) and studied at the Academie Des Beaux Arts. He spent his life traveling, sailing and diving in most of the seas in the world. Jean Francois fist first encounter with sharks was in Rangiroa in French Polynesia in 1985. Jean Francois quoted: “It was surreal and I never was afraid as I quickly realized that cohabitation was the key to avoid any problems with the predators.” Jean Francois painted many sharks, when most of his preliminary sketches are made underwater and finishes them in the studio but sometimes he sets studio in the bottom of the ocean and creates entirely his masterpieces underwater, and he calls them “Plein Ocean painting” the alternative to plein air painting.
THE SHARK PAINTER 