Every artist has it's masters. Of course, personal taste comes on the first place when choosing one's inspirational sources. The Science-Fiction illustrator I love the most is indeed Tim White, and this leads directly to Maxfield Parrish and his glorious heavenly landscapes. As for Tim White, the caracteristics of his style have influenced my own work from the beginning, a fondness for details and a rich ambiant light, convincingly describing worlds that could exist somewhere, but which are not absolutely matching our reality on planet Earth. A slightly non realistic reality!

"Nothing that can be imagined, is impossible" as someone said... what a fantastic prospect ! Below are presented some book cover illustrations. The first one, "Les éléphants d'Hannibal", is an unpublished cover for Présence du Futur - Denoël Editions. The whole collection had been sold to another editor while I was working on it (...) The book was never published. Second illustration is "Le sang du serpent" by Brian Stabbleford, J'ai-Lu Editions. The third painting have been published in Présence du Futur collection, under the title "Le nez de Cléopâtre", it presents short uchronic stories written by Robert Silverberg. Uchrony is a style of writing exploring what would happen, in our present or future, if a key event of our past had been different. As philosopher Pascal wrote: "Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed".

Below: the first image illustrates "La cité entre les mondes" by Francis Valéry, a steampunk uchronic novel which takes place in tropical Africa. The author was granted the Julia Verlanger award for it. The second one is the cover for "Cent mille images" by Pierre Stolze, he was granted the Rosny Ainé award for this book. It tales a Gods and Godesses mythological story of our future, in the regions of Tibet. The last one, "L'appel des ténèbres" is a compilation of three superb short stories written by Robert Silverberg.

"La planète fleurs" by John Boyd, is the second illustration I was working on when the collection Présence du futur was sold by Denoël Editions to another editor. So it is unpublished either. The story takes place on a strange planet where working botanical science can lead to some quite rare events. The second Image was created for "Le temps des genévriers", by Kate Wilhelm. In the future, our Earth is drying rapidly, in northern america the only remaining trees are the most enduring junipers. Could an unexpected contact with extraterrestrial intelligence be the key to humanity's survival? And the third illustration was published as a cover for the short stories compilation "Les compagnons secrets" by Robert Silverberg.

"Exploring Saloustia" is a personal unpublished work. A space shuttle is crossing a mountain pass while exploring a far-off world.