Michel Gaudin was born July 28, 1947 in the “Les Bouches du Rhone” area of southern France. He began painting at an early age and displayed a natural gift for expressing his view of the world around him on canvas. He began his career as an artist drawing his native landscapes in pencil and charcoal and eventually moved to painting with oils.

With time his style evolved further and the brush gave way to the palette knife. Today, using bold strokes and various palette knives of many different shapes and sizes, he literally sculpts the oil paint onto the canvas. He uses a brush only to sign his name and occasionally to add touches to wheat and poppy fields. Michel brings to the viewer an unsurpassed dimensional quality through his use of color, form and texture.

Michel now resides in Aix-en-Provence at the foot of Sainte Victoire, an area beloved by Cezanne. He frequently depicts this area, illuminated by the brilliance of the Mediterranean sun, in his paintings. His love of Provence inspires him to paint the mountains of Var, the lavender and sunflower fields of Vaucluse, the Cote d’Azur and the primitive beauty of Calanque—areas beloved by the French people and tourists from around the world. We can now enjoy these extraordinary vistas in our own home through Gaudin’s intuitive wielding of palette knife on canvas, and the charming limited edition giclees produced and distributed by Collectors Editions.