Patrice Mordant took to painting when he was a child, or more accurately he breathed the odors which emanated from the palette of his father. The Father, Jean Mordant, painter, friend of Buffet, Mathieu, Louis Guilloux, Atlan … and many others when he was in Paris. Yet Patrice was not particularly encouraged by his father, the relationship between the adult and the child then the teenager were sometimes distant or even conflictual.

So the young Patrice was more attracted to sport, which did not however prevent him from drawing. And it was when he was twelve years old that he really began to think of painting and paint his first picture. Painting tempted him and Patrice made several attempts, thwarted by his father, who was very demanding and who never gave him any encouragement or any advice about understanding the world of art.

Yet at a certain point in his life Jean Mordant wondered: who could carry on the family tradition?

The material needs of the family were a priority and Patrice was oriented towards technical studies in Dinan to learn a « real job. » Thus he became an electrician to spare his future family from the material worries that he had known.

Jean Mordant died in 1979. Is it then that the question posed by the Father returned to the memory of the elder son? In any case, it was during the holidays of 1980 that Patrice began a series of sketches in a notebook.

In 1983, he « dared » a portrait of Louis Armstrong, a charcoal portrait. Rather satisfied with the result Patrice gained in confidence and … threw himself into the adventure. He got out the easel of Father Jean, Emile Daubé’s gift to his first student Jean Mordant. Under Patrice’s brush appeared the first watercolors, the first seascapes, the first ports … Patrice felt free from the grip of the Father and was able to unleash his talent. Here is the autodidact on track.

Later, he abandoned watercolor to dedicate himself to oil painting.

Housed in a workshop in Saint-Brieuc where few people are allowed to enter, he feels good in this bubble, in this cocoon. He sometimes paints eight hours in a row listening to the music of the moment, daydreaming.

He is particularly fond of portraits, focuses on the person, fixes the person’s gaze and works around it, the exchange is already there: in family portraits of course, portraits of Father Jean, his mother Denise, his son Yan, … but also in portraits of friends and artists: Jacques Brel for whom he has a particular admiration or François Budet who he wanted to thank for the song composed in tribute to his old friend Jean Mordant.

Yet in 1993, after a trip to Scotland, Patrice Mordant decided to learn to play the Scottish bagpipes. Founding president of the Pipe Band of Saint-Brieuc, he will now focus on the music and forsake painting.

Painting … Music … painting… in 1999 to the delight of his friends he took up his brushes again. Colorful and varied landscapes are born on his canvases. Then one day, Patrice, pulling out of the family archives a sketch of the painter in his studio, decides to carry out what his father had only outlined.

A challenge? A tribute? A challenge because the son proves he can do what the Father had not done. A tribute because while painting this canvas Patrice makes the studio of his father reappear, the studio where the models, the still lifes, the seascapes, and the artist’s self-portrait all mingle . The MORDANTs, father and son, finally meet.

Today Patrice Mordant is a painter who defines himself as someone who is committed to looking closely, not cheating and being sincere. He considers that the fact he has never taken lessons allows him to be freer in his expression.

Like any artist, Patrice does not like comparisons. However, we note the importance of bold colors and strong lines in his paintings. When you know he admires Van Gogh and Bernard Buffet this doesn’t surprise one so much.

 Michel BOULAIRE

(extract from speech)