NOT ALL PASSIONS ARE BORN IN CHILDHOOD, NOR ARE all careers hatched in academe.

Like most artists of history, Frédéric Payet was self-taught. Like many others, he came to art indirectly. And his “mentors” were his countrymen, the great French impressionists of the 19th century.

Born in Madagascar and raised in Paris, Payet did not pick up a paintbrush until moving to the United States at age 29.

“I had an electronic component business in Paris, but I wasn’t happy with my life there,” says the French transplant, owner of the Frederic Payet Gallery in Downtown Charleston. “My dad had been in the United States for 40 years and had remarried. He helped me to get the green card at the time and inspired me to make the move.”

Payet was working as a manager in a French bakery in Danbury, Connecticut, before an uncle encouraged him to move to Atlanta and work in his gallery.

A light switched on. “This is how everything started,” he recalls. “I had never painted prior to this.”

Thirty-five years on, exhibiting widely in solo and group shows, and with his work held in private and public collections throughout Europe and North America, Payet is a gifted fixture in a celebrated artistic continuum.

Impressionism emerged in France in the 1860s, representing the first radical artistic revolution since the Renaissance. Rejecting prevailing ideas about perspective, balanced composition and idealized figures in favor of the immediate visual impact of color and light, it was widely dismissed by hidebound art critics but flourished and won lasting acclaim. It also set the stage for all the art movements that followed.

But impressionism has never been static. It lasted in its purest form only until 1886, after which time new experiments broadened the gaze. Not least the post-impressionists, like Van Gogh, another of Payet’s influences.

Payet’s work is diverse and dynamic, his landscapes singularly restful, his cityscapes vibrant with energy.

“As a self-taught artist, I learned by practicing. I also took classes to obtain some techniques until I developed my own,” he says. “The master impressionists mostly used brushes. I began with brushes and then started to use a palette knife, which gave me more freedom in my style.”

Today, his technical excellence is undoubted, his aesthetic sense no less admired. Together they enable him to capture not only a vivid sense of place but fleeting moments in time, transforming the ordinary into extraordinary visual encounters.

“I think of mine as a modern impressionist style,” says Payet. “I focus on the energy that is translated to the viewer.” Acrylics are his principal medium. “I also use modeling paste for texture. I’m always trying to expand by being looser in my strokes, more expressionistic and sometimes more abstract. I create peaceful and soothing images and sometimes excitement and drama.”

While his formative years were spent in Paris, Payet spent a great deal of time in the sun-splashed South of France. The incomparable beauty of the countryside and its light are strongly reflected in his paintings. He is drawn to nature for its mesmerizing interplay of light and shadow, the qualities that have compelled impressionists for generations.

“Light and shadow captivate me because they carry emotion,” he says. “They transform the natural world moment by moment, creating energy, vibration and a sense of presence that feels both fleeting and deeply human.” His task is also to achieve a sense of immediacy in the work. “I bring immediacy by translating feeling directly into color and movement. The work is created in a state of presence, so the viewer senses the moment it was made rather than a carefully constructed image.”

Apart from the tranquility of landscapes, Payet’s focus extends to the vigor and kinetics of cityscapes, a different but no less stimulating challenge. “I love to do cityscapes because often it reminds people of places where they had good memories. Of course, this is also true for landscapes,” he says.

Payet does not paint plein air. He works in his studio from photographs taken when he travels, as well as from memory. With a belief in painting from real life, and in authenticity, the artist often is found exploring the countryside and cities for inspiration.

“My purpose is to bring joy, a feeling of peace and well-being,” he adds. “I feel I have accomplished this over the years thanks to the feedback I receive from my collectors.”

In addition to his work, Payet’s gallery exhibits a wide range of creations from international artists past and present. His criteria for showcasing the work of other artists are straightforward: “Happy colors,” techniques different from his own and “good energy.”

It was a less-than-perfect storm that brought Payet and his wife to Charleston. Hurricane Helene had ravaged his gallery in Asheville, North Carolina, in September of 2024 and relocating to the Holy City seemed the most appealing alternative.

He says, “Since my wife and I used to come to Charleston regularly on vacation, we decided that it would be the place to start a new gallery.”

And find new inspiration. *

Bill Thompson is the author of Lightwaves: A Film Critic’s Odyssey.