Artist Feature - Martin Jarrie
Martin Jarrie with a selection of his work.
FROM STILL LIFES TO HYBRID CREATURES, MARTIN JARRIE'S PAINTINGS ARE A COLOURFUL JOURNEY BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE SURREAL.
Martin Jarrie is a French artist and illustrator based in Paris, France. His work encompasses commercial advertising, book illustration and personal artistic exploration. Martin’s unique aesthetic has earned him numerous awards and gallery exhibitions as well as the opportunity to publish close to 50 books.
Martin’s creative path began in childhood where he credits free time and a wealth of inspiration with his desire to create, to draw, and to play with shapes. Sources of inspiration included the landscapes of his childhood in the Bocage Vendéen region, his sisters, some of whom worked in sewing workshops, and his father's workshop, where a whole host of miscellaneous objects were piled up: old bicycles, tools, and machines. Later, there were dictionaries, art catalogs, and mail-order catalogs discovered during Martin’s years studying at the Beaux-Arts in Angers.
One defining characteristic of Martin’s work, is the subtle, layering of paint in each piece. Martin uses leftover paint from palettes before they dry, or the small amount of paint left in a tube and spreads it on paper before storing it away. It is these papers that he pulls from to start new work. The result is a rich canvas that, much like a palimpsest, hints at a hidden painting below.
We chatted with Martin about his inspiration and creative process behind his beautiful and surreal works.
What are some of your main sources of inspiration?
My sources of inspiration are multiple. Many come from my childhood, in the Vendée countryside, its landscapes, the sunken paths, the animals that surrounded me, the lizards, the snakes, the birds, the numerous and varied insects at the time, the wonder and the fears that some of them could give me at random during my frequent solitary walks in the countryside. Still in childhood, there was the pleasure of discovering new words and images in an old Larousse dictionary that my parents had and that my father consulted assiduously. And later, there were the art magazines that my brother brought home. This is how I discovered painters like Goya, Boucher, El Greco, Matisse, Picasso, Giotto ... Later still, during my studies at the Beaux-Arts, I discovered contemporary painting, Surrealism and Art Brut that I was able to fully appreciate when I arrived in Paris.
Can you tell us more about your creative process? Do you sketch your illustrations first, or do you move right to painting?
I always start with sketched research in small A5 notebooks. I jot down quickly sketched ideas. Then I decide on a format and lay out the elements of my drawing, which I then redo on a sheet of tracing paper before transferring it to a canvas or a piece of paper. I like the painting to be faithful to the drawing down to the smallest details.
Furthermore, I always paint on a sheet of paper or canvas already covered with paint scraps. I never paint on a white background.
Poire
Your work encompasses a vast range of subjects, is there one or two themes / subjects in particular that you most enjoy working on?
It is true that I like to vary the themes on which I work. This is obviously linked to the profession of illustrator for advertising, publishing and the press in particular which requires dealing with subjects as varied as retirement, cancer or tourism. Personally, I have a lot of pleasure in painting on the one hand still lifes of fruits, vegetables or on the other imaginary characters or animals in a surrealist spirit. I have a great admiration for Chardin on the one hand and Magritte on the other.
Martin Jarrie's puzzle titled Boats available here.
Hybride
Chou Rouge
A lot of your work has a surrealistic tone to it. Are there any other artists working in that genre that inspire you?
Indeed, I was very impressed by a major exhibition dedicated to André Breton by the Centre Pompidou in 1991. It was on this occasion that I discovered or rediscovered artists like Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, Dorothea Tanning among others. I was very struck by their great freedom and this helped me a lot not to hinder what arises in my imagination. I was also very influenced by the work of Douanier Rousseau or that of Aloys Zötl without forgetting the names of great artists of Art Brut like Adolf Wölfli or Rosario do Bispo. I understood by looking at their work that I could express myself with other materials than painting or drawing, I am thinking in particular of the wood of crates that I used quite frequently thereafter even to illustrate press articles.
How do you balance commercial work and speculative work?
I like commissioned work when it pushes me to deal with subjects that I would not have chosen myself and consequently to find new ideas. It is like gymnastics for the mind that can be useful in personal work. It is nevertheless personal research that I prefer for the surprises, the discoveries and the freedom that I can find there and which can nourish more commercial work. I think that it is important to have a personal artistic work to intellectually and plastically nourish the profession of illustrator and not to tire of commissioned work.
Tête + Oiseaux
Canal St Martin
What is one thing you've learned working in commercial illustration that you wish you had known when you first started?
I don't know if this will answer your question exactly, but I learned to paint and use acrylic paint while working for commercial illustration because I hadn't learned it during my student years. I would have preferred to know the painting techniques before starting my career as an illustrator. I would have saved a lot of time and self-confidence. I was not at all prepared for this career as an illustrator during my studies. I drew freely but I knew too few techniques.
Do you have any publications or exhibitions coming up that we can share with our community?
II'm going to publish a small poetic-philosophical book for children and adults with a French publisher I've already worked with extensively, called Rue du Monde. The book is titled "What Apple Are You to Laugh at Pears?"
I'll also be participating in several group exhibitions in France, in Souillac next December, in Compiègne in February 2026, and at the Belvédère Museum in Groningen, the Netherlands, in July 2026.
In 2023 and 2024, I designed 36 plate models for a Portuguese company, Vista Alegre. These plates should be on sale starting in October 2025.
Homme Végétal