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Jean-Paul Hébrard is a painter playing with the codes of representation in an explicit language which is specific to him. He uses a formal and symbolic vocabulary to create the expression of territories and composite spaces, which speak of man's relationship to his environment, notably through representations of nature and architecture. The formulated vision uses painting both in its classic window vision, but also for its capacity for abstraction. Defeating all theoretical separation.

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Jean-Paul's paintings are generous and provided in detail. They are the expression of spaces, architectures and elements of nature that make up imaginary landscapes. These spaces can be utopian, abstract, brutalist, agricultural or even archaeological. They always draw an unordered composition of mingled space and time. This fragmentary set of non-perspective horizons offers a vision that is symbolic and plays with perspective. This form of glyphy nevertheless has a depth created by intertwining games of colored masses, shapes and icons which pass to the first, second, background. The narration produced by the sign becomes a mental space of projection.

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The methods of representation used provide an eclectic vocabulary that allows the artist to achieve different expressions. Colorful shapes create abstract and dynamic compositions. They establish the composition of the painting in a chosen balance, often precarious, which induces movement. It is that of man who shapes, that of the space of representation and perception, constantly evolving. Icons and graphics then come to inhabit the spaces, giving the impression of autonomous islands, self-supporting, expressive paper architectures. The black lines are superimposed topographies, reinforcing bars supporting the whole. The detailed graphic compositions enrich the forms, suddenly giving them the value of an extremely dense temporal fold. These archaeological spaces are like parts of one of the utopian islands described above, which would reveal their internal structure and materiality. Giving utopia tangibility.

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The pictogram languages used are those of a constantly outdated modernity. The paintings are built on a regular grid of squares which is reminiscent of archaeological research grids as well as the tiles of Jean-Pierre Raynaud or Archizoom crisscrossing nature. Yet the painter, intuitive and natural, lets the shapes, colors and graphics escape within this standardized space. These symbols borrowed from graphic arts and design are then the landmarks of the space that twists and comes to life, materializing a field, a church, a tree, a city, or even a shape outlining a flat space. These are all marks of man who then build on the standardized space of the canvas, a vision composed of our reality borrowing freedom and expressiveness.