Buil, Philippe

Technique: Bronze and stainless steel sculptures

Born in Marseille in 1964, Philippe Buil is a sculptor and self-taught painter. He was fed a rich artistic culture from an early age, having as father and grandfather, painters, and a mother who practised glass-work.

As many teenagers however, he decided not to follow the family path, and studied biology, later branching off to learn locksmithing, plumbing and heating. In 2009, he embraced a new change, this time redirecting to his youthful passion, sculpture. "I returned to my first love. At 20, I created furniture designs, lighting, and my first sculptures in metal," recalls the artist, who sees himself as a sculptor who searches, experiments, and innovates his creative sense. "I chose to work in bronze. The raw material is traditional, but how I treat it is innovative."

In his studio, within the art gallery of his companion, forge, anvil, vise, drill and sander are the tools that shape their daily lives. The innovation brought by Philippe Buil to his sculptures is the use of an additional tool, a singular torch that heats up to 8000 degrees Celsius using a hydrogen generator. With this tool, he can make precision cuts directly into metal, to enable him to create harmonious proportions, well-made volumes, movement, and give life and character to each of his original works.

"The soldering becomes almost surgical. This technique frees me completely. Then, each piece is weathered, either with chemicals or with pigments that expand the colour palette,"says the sculptor.

Philippe Buil's work is exhibited in several cities in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada.