Thomas Petit sculptor

© Guy Kunz-Jacques

THOMAS PETIT

Born in 1991, he lives and works in Angoulême. Thomas Petit signs his works CPT for Cesto Petit Thomas: Cesto is a mixed-race name from his Martinican mother, Petit from his Charentais father. As a child, fascinated by natural sciences and paleontology, he created a museum in the family home in Angoulême.

After preparing a BEP in architecture at the Lycée de Sillac, Thomas moved to Creuse to train as a stonemason at the Lycée professionnel des métiers du bâtiment in Felletin. He did his apprenticeship in Marc Deligny's workshop, first located in Villejésus near Aigre, then in Tusson in the Charente region: specializing in ornamental sculpture, this workshop works both for private clients and for Monuments Historiques. After his CAP, Thomas will continue to perfect his skills there.

In 2010, at the age of 18, he made his first major trip to French Guiana: there, between Cayenne and Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, he was fascinated by the power of the plants and the diversity of the insects that would later inspire him (2014-15) to create his giant "membracides".

In 2014, he backpacked through Burma, northern Thailand and Cambodia. Visiting the Angkor site, he admires the architecture of the temples and the immense program of Khmer sculptures in relief and bas-relief, and never tires of drawing on his sketchbook the monumental heads of the Bayon and the graceful apsaras.

In 2016, working with Marc Deligny on a site in Sainte-Maxime, with Italy not far away, he travels to Carrara, visits the marble quarries and buys tools. In the spring, as part of the "Pierres en dédale" residency in Montendre, Charente Maritime, he creates his first large sculpture, evoking a labyrinth. In September, as a prizewinner of the Charente-based Les Tricoles Foundation, he undertook a 3 x 4-metre sculpture in the limestone cliff above the Echelle stream in the hamlet of La Brousse, near Sers. The sculpture represents "Marianne", whose hair intertwines the artistic emblems of various continents (including, for Africa, a Kota reliquary figure from Gabon): Thomas thus pays tribute to cultural diversity and to the Solutréen artists who, 23,000 years ago, carved the famous parietal frieze of horses, ibex, bison and a human figure at nearby Roc de Sers, now housed at the Musée de l'Archéologie Nationale in St-Germain-en-Laye.

In February 2017, Thomas travels to Dakar, Senegal. There he first met the stone sculptor Oumar Pouye, based on the corniche. He spends some time at the Village des Arts, located in Yoff on the road to the old airport, which includes some fifty workshops and a permanent gallery named after Léopold Sédar Senghor: painters like Amadou Dieng and Kara Fall give him a fraternal welcome. He sculpts an untitled work in basalt, left behind.

In summer 2017, Thomas joins the "Lapidiales", an open-air sculptors' workshop created by Alain Tenenbaum in a complex of cliffs and quarries located between Port-d'Envaux and Crazannes, in the Charente Maritime region, which offers a unique space for expression to artists from all horizons. Thomas sculpts a man-jaguar in the round as a tribute to Amerindian culture. Some time later, shortly before Christmas, Thomas flies to Mexico, where he spends two months, invited to the first edition of the Tepeji del Rio stone sculpture festival, in the province of Idalgo: hosted in residence with six other sculptors in a former textile factory, he represents in local travertine a "tztzimime", a female stellar demon in Aztec mythology, and takes advantage of his stay to visit the great pre-Columbian temples of Tula and Teotihuacan.

In October 2018, the Burkinabe sculptor Siriki Ky invites him to come to Burkina Faso and take part in the sculpture symposium he has set up on the Laongo site, some thirty kilometers from the capital Ouagadougou: this granite site stretches over several hectares, and over the years has become a meeting place for international sculptors working according to their inspiration on the rocks that stretch as far as the eye can see. Thomas chisels a fragmentary head, half-woman, half-mask, entitled "Retour en Afrique" ("Back to Africa"). Thomas makes friends with various sculptors, including Kanak Handjing Pagou Banehote. With the bronze craftsmen who work for Siriki Ky, he familiarizes himself with the lost-wax casting technique and models a pair of bronze eyes for his sculpture. At the end of the residency, Thomas will stay in Burkina for a further month: in Ouaga, at the Village des Arts, he will learn how to make a djembe (as Thomas is also a musician) and cast his "bird mask" in bronze.

During 2019, Thomas works for the company of Romanian-born sculptor-restorer Viorel Enache, on the restoration of one of the pediments of the Louvre Palace, controlled by the MH. In August-September, he creates a "Daphne" for the Saxifraga association, in the middle of the Jardin Vert, which is now the property of the City of Angoulême.

During the sterile period of confinement, he set up a new studio in a property belonging to English friends in the Anguienne valley. Among his works are Lobi statues from Burkina Faso, Naga ethnography from northeast India and objects from Sepik (Papua New Guinea).

Proud of his African, Caribbean and Gallic roots, and a global citizen, Thomas embodies the "Tout-Monde" philosophy dear to poet Édouard Glissant, that of the happy interpenetration of cultures and imaginations.

Étienne Féau

Thomas PETIT's work is part of an infinite quest for knowledge, forms and materials. Born into a family with roots in the Caribbean, Charente and Brittany, and driven from an early age by a quest to understand the mechanisms of life, nature has become a veritable playground for him. The themes of nature and human diversity are among his main sources of inspiration.

Artistic and professional career:

• Sculpture symposium in Zevallos, Guadeloupe 2022
• Group show, "25 ème Salon d'art APROART", Aubusson 2022
• Exhibition at Galerie l'Escale, Château d'Oléron (17), 2022
• Workshop probing and cutting volcanic rocks, at the Campus Caraïbéen des Arts de Fort de France ( Martinique) 2022
• Maciuca International Marble Sculpture Symposium, Romania, 2021
• Group show "Dialogue", Musée d'Angoulême (16), 2021
• Group exhibition at Château de Saint-Auvent (87), 2021
• Monumental stone sculpture for a sculpture trail in Vix, Vendée, 2021
• 2019-2020 Work on the Gothic church of Arc la Bataille (Normandy). Friezes, pinnacles, cabbage leaves, dog ears
• Carving of elements for Place Stanislas (Nancy), monumental fireballs on molded bases.
• Cutting of friezes and volutes for Nevers town hall.
• participation in the restoration of the Palais du Louvre (Paris)...
• Work carried out in partnership with the Enache Patrimoine workshop (on site and in the workshop)...
• Surgères sculpture symposium, 2019
• Solo exhibition at La Galerie Marland, Angoulême, 2019
• Monumental sculpture for the Festival "ça ira mieux demain", Jardin Vert d'Angoulême, 2019
• Sculpture residency and symposium in Laongo, Burkina Faso, 201
• Sculpture symposium in Tepeji del rio, Mexico (sculpture on Travertine marble), 2017
• September 2017 creation of a high relief for the prestigious Cognac house Rémy-Martin
• International Sculpture residency, at the Crazannes nature centers for the Lapidiales, 2017
• Symposium for a monumental sculpture in Junas (Gard), 2017
• Winner of the Tricoles Foundation grant under the aegis of the Fondation de France. Monumental cliff sculpture (4x3 m), 2016
• Symposium de sculpture monumentale sur pierre à Montendre ( Charente Maritime) 2016
• Basalt sculpture at the art gallery in Dakar (Senegal), Village des Arts, 2016
• 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 realization of trophies for the association L'Hippocampe during the Angoulême International Comics Festival (6 collections, of 36 copies made in polychrome resins, hand-painted finish). Comic strip competition for disabled children.
• Cutting, laying and adjusting various architectural elements and ornamental decorations on stone, St Nicolas basilica, 2013-2014
• 2010-2012 : BP Métier de la pierre in Felletin.
• Apprenticeship at Marc Deligny's statuary workshop in Charente 2010-2012
• 2009-2010: CAP (vocational training certificate) in stonemasonry and building decoration at the Felletin training center (Creuse).
• 2006-2009: BEP Technique de l'Architecture et de l'Habitat, Sillac d'Angoulême school.

© Guy Kunz-Jacques

THOMAS PETIT

Born in 1991, he lives and works in Angoulême. Thomas Petit signs his works CPT for Cesto Petit Thomas: Cesto is a mixed-race name from his Martinican mother, Petit from his Charentais father. As a child, fascinated by natural sciences and paleontology, he created a museum in the family home in Angoulême.

After preparing a BEP in architecture at the Lycée de Sillac, Thomas moved to Creuse to train as a stonemason at the Lycée professionnel des métiers du bâtiment in Felletin. He did his apprenticeship in Marc Deligny's workshop, first located in Villejésus near Aigre, then in Tusson in the Charente region: specializing in ornamental sculpture, this workshop works both for private clients and for Monuments Historiques. After his CAP, Thomas will continue to perfect his skills there.

In 2010, at the age of 18, he made his first major trip to French Guiana: there, between Cayenne and Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, he was fascinated by the power of the plants and the diversity of the insects that would later inspire him (2014-15) to create his giant "membracides".

In 2014, he backpacked through Burma, northern Thailand and Cambodia. Visiting the Angkor site, he admires the architecture of the temples and the immense program of Khmer sculptures in relief and bas-relief, and never tires of drawing on his sketchbook the monumental heads of the Bayon and the graceful apsaras.

In 2016, working with Marc Deligny on a site in Sainte-Maxime, with Italy not far away, he travels to Carrara, visits the marble quarries and buys tools. In the spring, as part of the "Pierres en dédale" residency in Montendre, Charente Maritime, he creates his first large sculpture, evoking a labyrinth. In September, as a prizewinner of the Charente-based Les Tricoles Foundation, he undertook a 3 x 4-metre sculpture in the limestone cliff above the Echelle stream in the hamlet of La Brousse, near Sers. The sculpture represents "Marianne", whose hair intertwines the artistic emblems of various continents (including, for Africa, a Kota reliquary figure from Gabon): Thomas thus pays tribute to cultural diversity and to the Solutréen artists who, 23,000 years ago, carved the famous parietal frieze of horses, ibex, bison and a human figure at nearby Roc de Sers, now housed at the Musée de l'Archéologie Nationale in St-Germain-en-Laye.

In February 2017, Thomas travels to Dakar, Senegal. There he first met the stone sculptor Oumar Pouye, based on the corniche. He spends some time at the Village des Arts, located in Yoff on the road to the old airport, which includes some fifty workshops and a permanent gallery named after Léopold Sédar Senghor: painters like Amadou Dieng and Kara Fall give him a fraternal welcome. He sculpts an untitled work in basalt, left behind.

In summer 2017, Thomas joins the "Lapidiales", an open-air sculptors' workshop created by Alain Tenenbaum in a complex of cliffs and quarries located between Port-d'Envaux and Crazannes, in the Charente Maritime region, which offers a unique space for expression to artists from all horizons. Thomas sculpts a man-jaguar in the round as a tribute to Amerindian culture. Some time later, shortly before Christmas, Thomas flies to Mexico, where he spends two months, invited to the first edition of the Tepeji del Rio stone sculpture festival, in the province of Idalgo: hosted in residence with six other sculptors in a former textile factory, he represents in local travertine a "tztzimime", a female stellar demon in Aztec mythology, and takes advantage of his stay to visit the great pre-Columbian temples of Tula and Teotihuacan.

In October 2018, the Burkinabe sculptor Siriki Ky invites him to come to Burkina Faso and take part in the sculpture symposium he has set up on the Laongo site, some thirty kilometers from the capital Ouagadougou: this granite site stretches over several hectares, and over the years has become a meeting place for international sculptors working according to their inspiration on the rocks that stretch as far as the eye can see. Thomas chisels a fragmentary head, half-woman, half-mask, entitled "Retour en Afrique" ("Back to Africa"). Thomas makes friends with various sculptors, including Kanak Handjing Pagou Banehote. With the bronze craftsmen who work for Siriki Ky, he familiarizes himself with the lost-wax casting technique and models a pair of bronze eyes for his sculpture. At the end of the residency, Thomas will stay in Burkina for a further month: in Ouaga, at the Village des Arts, he will learn how to make a djembe (as Thomas is also a musician) and cast his "bird mask" in bronze.

During 2019, Thomas works for the company of Romanian-born sculptor-restorer Viorel Enache, on the restoration of one of the pediments of the Louvre Palace, controlled by the MH. In August-September, he creates a "Daphne" for the Saxifraga association, in the middle of the Jardin Vert, which is now the property of the City of Angoulême.

During the sterile period of confinement, he set up a new studio in a property belonging to English friends in the Anguienne valley. Among his works are Lobi statues from Burkina Faso, Naga ethnography from northeast India and objects from Sepik (Papua New Guinea).

Proud of his African, Caribbean and Gallic roots, and a global citizen, Thomas embodies the "Tout-Monde" philosophy dear to poet Édouard Glissant, that of the happy interpenetration of cultures and imaginations.

Étienne Féau

Thomas PETIT's work is part of an infinite quest for knowledge, forms and materials. Born into a family with roots in the Caribbean, Charente and Brittany, and driven from an early age by a quest to understand the mechanisms of life, nature has become a veritable playground for him. The themes of nature and human diversity are among his main sources of inspiration.

Artistic and professional career:

• Sculpture symposium in Zevallos, Guadeloupe 2022
• Group show, "25 ème Salon d'art APROART", Aubusson 2022
• Exhibition at Galerie l'Escale, Château d'Oléron (17), 2022
• Workshop probing and cutting volcanic rocks, at the Campus Caraïbéen des Arts de Fort de France ( Martinique) 2022
• Maciuca International Marble Sculpture Symposium, Romania, 2021
• Group show "Dialogue", Musée d'Angoulême (16), 2021
• Group exhibition at Château de Saint-Auvent (87), 2021
• Monumental stone sculpture for a sculpture trail in Vix, Vendée, 2021
• 2019-2020 Work on the Gothic church of Arc la Bataille (Normandy). Friezes, pinnacles, cabbage leaves, dog ears
• Carving of elements for Place Stanislas (Nancy), monumental fireballs on molded bases.
• Cutting of friezes and volutes for Nevers town hall.
• participation in the restoration of the Palais du Louvre (Paris)...
• Work carried out in partnership with the Enache Patrimoine workshop (on site and in the workshop)...
• Surgères sculpture symposium, 2019
• Solo exhibition at La Galerie Marland, Angoulême, 2019
• Monumental sculpture for the Festival "ça ira mieux demain", Jardin Vert d'Angoulême, 2019
• Sculpture residency and symposium in Laongo, Burkina Faso, 201
• Sculpture symposium in Tepeji del rio, Mexico (sculpture on Travertine marble), 2017
• September 2017 creation of a high relief for the prestigious Cognac house Rémy-Martin
• International Sculpture residency, at the Crazannes nature centers for the Lapidiales, 2017
• Symposium for a monumental sculpture in Junas (Gard), 2017
• Winner of the Tricoles Foundation grant under the aegis of the Fondation de France. Monumental cliff sculpture (4x3 m), 2016
• Symposium de sculpture monumentale sur pierre à Montendre ( Charente Maritime) 2016
• Basalt sculpture at the art gallery in Dakar (Senegal), Village des Arts, 2016
• 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 realization of trophies for the association L'Hippocampe during the Angoulême International Comics Festival (6 collections, of 36 copies made in polychrome resins, hand-painted finish). Comic strip competition for disabled children.
• Cutting, laying and adjusting various architectural elements and ornamental decorations on stone, St Nicolas basilica, 2013-2014
• 2010-2012 : BP Métier de la pierre in Felletin.
• Apprenticeship at Marc Deligny's statuary workshop in Charente 2010-2012
• 2009-2010: CAP (vocational training certificate) in stonemasonry and building decoration at the Felletin training center (Creuse).
• 2006-2009: BEP Technique de l'Architecture et de l'Habitat, Sillac d'Angoulême school.