Bertrand Licart

Bertrand Licart is an artist for whom painting is not limited to the act of creating an image: it becomes a path of stripping away, a space of silence where one can finally perceive what escapes hurried eyes. His practice is rooted in a deeply spiritual approach, influenced by the great non-dual traditions, notably Chinese Chan, the Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra, and Kashmir Shaivism.

In his works, the aim is not to represent the world as it is, but to awaken an inner gaze, to create openings, thresholds of perception. The canvas becomes a mirror. It does not reflect what we believe we see, but reveals the filters that obscure our vision: our beliefs, our conditioning, the layers of thought and emotion that we mistake for reality.

Bic Pen and Gold Leaf

His current body of work, combining the Bic pen and gold leaf, explores the fertile tension between the simplicity of the line and the symbolic nobility of gold. This contrast creates a refined, vibrant visual language that evokes inner light, the transparency of reality, and the gradual dissolution of the filters that cloud our perception. Each work seems to invite a shift in the way we see: no longer to see the surface, but to sense what radiates in silence.

Biography

Bertrand Licart, a visual artist, has been developing a singular body of work for several decades, at the intersection of gesture and contemplation. He has exhibited in Germany, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. His works can be found in contemporary art spaces as well as in private collections, architectural projects, and places that foster a sensitive experience of seeing and attention. His career reflects a constant commitment: to make his artistic practice an act of presence, a path of honesty toward oneself.

In his native France and later in Germany, he spent his formative years at a Rudolf Steiner school, where creativity, sensitive observation, and freedom of gesture became the foundation of his relationship with the world. In Paris, he trained in theatre under the mime master Marcel Marceau, and studied painting and fresco with the painter Nicolaï Greschny, heir to the Byzantine iconographic tradition. With him, he discovered the techniques of the Old Masters, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Upon arriving in Canada, he studied cello at Université Laval in Quebec City.

The core of his artistic vision emerged through decisive encounters with Satish Kumar, Vandana Shiva, and Éric Baret, whose teachings he followed. Creation then became a space of openness, where the act of painting is never separated from breath or inner life. As a result, his practice evolved into one that is deeply spiritual, and from that point onward has been influenced by the great non-dual traditions, the Vijñāna-bhairava-tantra, and Kashmir Shaivism.

For Bertrand Licart, artistic practice is therefore a path of stripping away. He explores the notions of presence and a space of silence where one can finally perceive what escapes hurried eyes. Like a mirror, the canvas reveals beliefs and conditioning, those layers of thoughts and emotions that cloud vision, inviting us toward the simplest nakedness of what is.