Christophe Grimonpon was born in Normandy in 1976. He was influenced by a grandfather who was in the French Navy. He spent many hours as a child exploring shipyards with his father. He has always been moved by old machinery, warehouses, dusty interiors and the marks man leaves in time.
Christophe became an English teacher in 2000. He went to London and discovered the school on hyperrealism, by which he was greatly influenced. Little by little his work evolved from sketches to watercolours. For two years he only produced portraits but then humans, too transcient and insubstantial, disappeared completely from his paintings. He now finds his inspiration in anonymous scenes frozen in time. His subjects, unmoving and silent, refuse any anecdotal narrative. No people, not even a silhouette. The paintings are deserted and characterless. These places of work, usually filled with whirring machines, clanging metal, babbling radios and chattering voices are suddenly rendered silent. An indeterminate silence.
Christophe is not attached to the hyperrealist dogma of reproducing a photograph. The play with focus enables the spectator to project him or herself into the atmosphere of the painting. Christophe uses his camera as a sketchpad. The paintings seem real, yet remain intangible. Hangars, relections, light filtering through dirty windows, chaos in the background, all is a mise en scène inviting the observer to step in and take a look.
Christophe's painting was highly commended in the Salon de la Marine (Palais de Chaillot, Paris) in 2005 and 2007. He received the title of official French Airforce painter on July 26, 2011.