Various medium formats
Various medium formats
The Roland Buraud collection has been under the direction and management of Etienne Buraud since 2009.
Roland Buraud's workshop
Marie-Laetitia d'Hérouville




I froze your workshop at the beginning of winter 2010
Early winter 2010. The weather is snowy. Sitting on the heated terrace of the “Pause Café,” I look at the lit windows on the third floor of the Josset passage. I see Étienne’s shadow looming and beckoning me to come up. The place is free.
The last visitors have just left. I feel excited, anxious, shy and impatient all at once… I slowly climb the steps and stop dead in front of this varnished black door that opens sharply, barely giving me time to collect my thoughts…
Roland's son seems very busy and leaves me free to visit this space alone.
First of all, encounter with these immense triptychs on a dark background where the white bodies are tearing each other apart… I am impressed… They almost freeze my blood… But I cannot help but brush against the texture in relief of the canvas. I take a few steps back to appreciate its immensity…
Right next to it, other large canvases lined up against each other reveal only their colored edges and a small sticker bearing a number... I like the graphics of this composition even if I can't appreciate the content.
Etienne is busy packing up some canvases… The floor is littered with large rolls of bubble wrap, brown paper, rolls of tape… I sneak in as discreetly as possible and continue my visit. I want to surprise him with a photo report of his father's studio, where he spent thousands of hours creating, dreaming, escaping.
Here I am in the back room, on the right… A few large canvases on the wall… Including a couple on a blue background that catch my eye. The floor is covered with rather colorful canvases… A large painted hand sticks out, I smile.
On the table in front of the window, dozens of magnificent inks, forming rolls, intermingle and are reflected in the aluminum lamp… I like these distorting reflections in the roundness of the lamp.
My attention is diverted by about forty very small formats on the wall, hung in a staggered pattern, then by this magnificent collection of hanging brushes. My gaze remains riveted on this straw-colored hat, edged with a black band, which overhangs pots of paint, pencils, a wooden set square, spray cans of all kinds, brushes… A strong emotion invades me…
I go back to see Étienne, to share a little coffee, sitting on white folding chairs, right in the middle of this large space… The electric stove tries to warm us up… We exchange a few words… But I'm not very talkative… I almost want to whisper… This place is so intimate…
Roland, I will never have met you, but I have entered into communion with what is most precious in you: your creations and your workshop, the birthplace of your eternal works...
I had an extraordinary time… I froze your workshop at the beginning of winter 2010…
Marie-Laetitia d'Hérouville