Benoît Dartigues; Sabres, Landes, France
In the 1980s, after studying architecture, Benoît (Benedict) Dartigues, alias BuD, launched into Comics. He began in To Follow and Heavy Metal but soon moved into press illustration and (using watercolours) advertising. In 2000, following an accident, he settled in Aquitaine and created a small publishing house but left after a few years to return to illustration. In 2010, under the pseudonym BuD he started the erotic series "Girls of Joy, Woman of Dreams". Then he turned towards illustration for Youth magazines (Bayard, Fleurus, Hachette, …).

He works in digital painting, i.e. he designs, draws and paints his pictures using a computer. The works are then Giclee printed as limited editions on canvas or art paper. This process is controlled by EPSON France, who guarantee the authenticity and provenance of each work by the artist.

In 2009, after the passage of Hurricane Klaus and the devastation of a nearby local forest had left vast empty spaces, he took up his brushes and discovered a new form of expression for him, acrylic:

"I've always been fascinated by the sky and the clouds, whether on sea or in the air. Bad photographer, I try since childhood to draw and paint what I see and feel. Today I seek in my work to capture the light and the materials around me and to compose a palette with which I build my paintings. One can then see a hyperrealistic image or even an abstract composition. But the important thing is that it exudes emotion that I want to translate."