Buil, Philippe

Technique: Sculpture on bronze and stainless steel

Born in Marseille in 1964, Philippe Buil is a self-taught sculptor and painter. He was nourished by a rich artistic culture from a young age, having painters as father and grandfather, and a mother practicing the glassmaking profession.

Like the majority of young adolescents, however, he decided not to follow the family path and chose to study biology, then branched off into locksmithing, plumbing and heating. In 2009, he began a new change, this time to redirect himself towards his youthful passion, sculpture. “I was returning to my first loves. At 20, I had created designer furniture, lighting and my first metal sculptures,” relates the artist, who sees himself as a sculptor who researches, experiments, innovates and lets his creative sense speak. “I chose to work with bronze. The raw material is traditional, the way of processing it is innovative. »

In his workshop, established within his partner's art gallery, forge, anvil, vice, drill and sander are the tools that punctuate his daily life. The innovation that Philippe Buil brings to his sculptures lies in the use of an additional tool, a very unique blowtorch which heats up to 8000 degrees Celsius using a hydrogen generator. It is with this tool that he will make high precision cuts, directly on the metal, to allow him to create harmonious proportions, well-deployed volumes, and thus give movement, life and character to each of his original works. .

“The welding procedure becomes almost surgical. This technique totally frees me. Then, each piece is patinated, either with chemical agents or with pigments which allow the color palette to be developed,” says the sculptor.

Philippe Buil exhibits in several cities in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada.