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WHERE THE EARTH BECAMES IMAGE
Nazli Kok Akbas, Art Editor, Geneva-Switzerland
Julien Peltier’s artistic journey begins long before the studio, in a landscape shaped by family, memory, and a quiet attention to the natural world. Born and raised in France, he grew up in very close connection with his grandparents, within an environment where manual skills, patience, and respect for nature were part of everyday life. These early bonds were not only emotional, but formative; they thought him how to observe, how to wait, and how to understand the value of things that take time to reveal themselves.
His grandparents, in particularly, played a central role in shaping his sensitivity. Through them Peltier encountered traditional crafts, the rhythms of rural life, intimate relationship with materials such as leather, wool, earth, and plants. These were not abstract ideas but lived experiences -gestures repeated, textures-touched, smells-remembered. In this familiar context, creation was not separated from life; it was embedded in it. This closeness to ancestral knowledge instilled in him a deep respect for transmission, for what is passed down silently rather than explained.
Before fully embracing painting, Peltier followed a path marked by introspection and travel. Long walks, pilgrimages, and periods of retreat allowed him to cultivate a form of inner listening. Nature was never backdrop from him; it was a presence and a teacher. This sensibility would later become central to his artistic practice.
Julien Peltier’s work today is deeply rooted in material research drawn directly from nature. His approach is very intuitive rather than scientific, guided by sensation, encounter, and trust. He collects earth, Plants, ashes, and minerals from specific places, then patiently transforms them into pigments. Each color carries the memory of its origin- not only visually, but energetically. For him, matter is not inert: it is alive, charged with history and vibration. Painting thus becomes and act of translation, a way of allowing nature to speak through color and light.
His canvasses are not representation of landscapes but traces of lived encounters. Abstraction, in his work, is organic and grounded. It arises from very delicat repeated gestures, slow process, and careful balance between control and letting go. In his artistic practice the act of painting resembles a ritual: a moment between the artist, the material, and the place from which it comes.
THE PROJECT 88
Peltier’s philosophy finds its most ambitious expression in his latest work, PROJECT 88, a long-term artistic journey that artist shares with his friend Elliot Antoine who documents their experience. The Project 88 reflects both Peltier’s inner calling and his desire to reconnect art with the sacred dimension of place. The number 88, rich in symbolic resonance, marks the scale of the project: eighty-eight sites, each chosen for its ancient, spiritual, or energetic significance. These are places where humanity has long sensed something greater than itself- forests, mountains, sanctuaries, and forgotten thresholds.
Peltier’s motivation for Project 88 is simple yet profound: to slow down and listen. In a world dominated by speed and constant production, he chose commitment, and presence. Each site is approached as a collaborator rather a subject. He spends time there. The resulting painting is not a souvenir, but an echo what was felt.
