Biography:

The magic of Stephane BRAUD's under-water painting could well be summed up by two particularly pertinent quotations by the author when he speaks with feeling about his consuming passion.
"To paint, I need to feel part of my surroundings" or "I am stuck into under-water painting - under water is ecstasy. I have the impression of flying on the way to a depth of sometimes 46 meters - believe me, in the limpid waters of Indian Ocean, under the attentive scrutiny of the fish population, inspiration comes completely naturally. A blank page never poses a problem".
The painter whom the Reunion Island press refers today as the "under-water painter" or even "the under-water oil painting magician" has only to choose from these flattering superlatives! As for the painter himself, he only has one objective artistic pleasure.

Up to now, while Stephane is still trying to improve his style and establish his technique, it is only to reproduce the Oceans he loves so much - a myriad of colors, treasures from the deep blue sea, brought up and spirited away from the Great world of Silence. Quite true for, as other divers hunt around under water, armed with harpoons and cameras, he fishes around with his brushes and tubes of colors. But it is with painter's equipment that he catches his fish, and caresses corals and remnant from our tropical seas.

After being initiated in under-water art by the oceanaut Andre Laban, St6phane BRAUD today is one o£ the very few, perhaps half dozen subaquatic painters listed across the world.

Artists who, each in his or her own corner of the world, are developing their own technique, and put on canvas personal images brought back from their oceanic travels. As for Stephane, he paints corals, and tropical fish in the clearness of the Mauritius lagoons, and sketches wrecks overlooked in the blue depths of the Indian waters of the Reunion Island.

Mad on diving, a sport he has assiduously enjoyed for 15 years now, and painter acknowledge for more than 20 years, it now appears undoubtedly obvious that Stephane BRAUD has chosen to marry his two passions. For our greatest pleasure! Apart from the sporting and technical performance, for it really is a fear as no-one can better explain, the artist is revealing his stratagem and secrets with no eye wash, except this specific aspect which often the newspaper columns in the points of view section. He really does bring up authentic paintings from his nautical trips, creative dives and under-water frenzy - in fact marine paintings like a "piece" of ocean. Salt water, the sea, depth and the bluish ultramarine luminescence - all is captured for good on the Master's canvas "Under water, the blank page is no longer a problem for me" he says.

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