Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration? No, I don’t really have places that inspire me. Everything happens within me.

1-Where did you grow up, and where do you live currently? 

I was born in Moigny. It is a rural village south of Paris. Today, I live and work in Saint Maur sur le Loir, in a house that my family has owned for several generations. It is a charming hamlet on the banks of the Loir. It is located 130 km from Paris.

2-How would you describe Alain Ponçon? 

I had a complicated childhood where confidence in myself was not encouraged. I escaped by dreaming a lot. I developed a great sensitivity. I love nature very much, and I suffer from seeing its destruction. I find it difficult to accept institutions and power. Today, as I grow older, I simplify things by concentrating on my work as a painter.  Doubt is always present, but I am aware of how lucky I am to be inhabited by this mysterious passion for art.

3-Did you have any official training for art? 

At the age of 12, my parents enrolled me in a municipal art school run by the painter Serge Vincent, who also worked as a cartonnier for the Aubusson tapestries. For three years, in Paris, I studied perspective. I have nothing left of it! Between the ages of 17 and 20, I met two artists with whom I worked for a while. One, Chomo, was a fantastic and unclassifiable artist who had broken with the official art system, and the other a marginal priest and easel painter. The latter left no trace.  They were diametrically opposed artists who opened up different horizons for me.