I love sailing even if it's just for a few hours. It gives me the sensation of escaping reality.
I love rock climbing because if you are out of shape, you will know it as soon you step on the rock. It is the ultimate test for your mind and body and taking a route of another will define completely your choice.
Climbing solo is unforgiving, I practice it on the easy climb 5:8 to 5:9, but they are so fulfilling.
I love running long distance, the feeling of high and clear spirit you get from it is enlightening.
Music
I love calm and serenity but when it comes to music I like to escape to Pink Floyd, AC/DC-I am a seventies guy!
Movies
I go to movie theater 4 times per year, I love a good thriller and good comedy. I love Raging Bull and De Funes, a French comedy movie.
Television
I rarely watch TV.
Books
I read only books on travel adventure and art! My favorite painters are Velasquez for his amazing technique, Dali for his madness, Picasso for his smart, and I admire Damien Hirst for his understanding of our world and knowledge to exploit it. I love Philip Stark for his integrity and ability to simplify and get rid of clutter.
Heroes
I love Bernard Moitessier, the crazy French sailor who turned his boat around before finishing the first sailing race around the world non stop. And instead went for another round to finish his life in Tahiti writing books! A true free spirit who was able to listen his heart and not the media.
I love kids because they have no inhibition and they are who they are until society and money corrupt them. Until then, they are angels.
My father for fighting death and surviving a terrible accident during World War II and give me the chance to be born, live and celebrate life.
Born in Namur, Belgium, Jean Francois Detaille discovered his passion for art at an early age. Painting was his father's hobby, and on vacations with his parents in Spain and the South of France Jean Francois would watch the local artists create on-the-spot portraits for tourists. In 1975, after a chance meeting in Figueras, Spain with the flamboyant artist Salvador Dali, Jean Francois realized that the quiet life of the studio artist was not for him.
In 1976 he enrolled in the Academy of Beaux Art in Belgium - best known as the school of painters Jan van Eyck, Brueghel, Rubens, Magritte, James Ensor, Alechinsky and others - to develop his talent along more formal lines. Upon completion, he enrolled in the Academy des Beaux Arts de Paris, known over the years as the birthplace of numerous art movements, the base of Academic painters Messonier and Jean Baptiste Edouard Detaille, and the school of impressionist painters Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Jean Francois Millet, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, cubist Pablo Picasso, surrealist Salvador Dali, conceptual artist Ben Wautier and performance artist Yves Klein.
Jean Francois' desire for adventure led him to travel widely. In 1982, he packed his bags and art supplies and traveled around the world on a sailboat, painting thousands of paintings along the way. The Caribbean, Hawaii and Tahiti were his new themes and his boat made a perfect studio.
"I always painted in front of an audience to music. In school I was faster than everybody else", says Jean Francois. Searching for a methodology that would harness his technical skills and allow a rapid, spontaneous style of work, he created Extreme Art in the early 1990's. Working with explosive energy and without preliminary plans or sketches, Jean Francois uses forceful strokes of vibrant color to fill large canvases in minutes. He explains that working at this rapid pace opens a more direct channel between the image in his mind and the motions of his hands, giving the finished work greater immediacy and power.
In 1997 Jean Francois was asked to perform in the show "Madhattan" at the New York New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. That engagement resulted in other invitations from producers and event planners in several countries. In 2000, he was named the Spotlight Awards Entertainer of the Year for the special/corporate event market.
On a more personal note, some memories...some of my best times in life were winning a judo competition, starting my first business, the aerobic craze in Belgium, out of a box of fliers.
And then traveling around the world meeting people from all avenues. Seeing Bora Bora, coming out of the mist when I enter the Lagoon with my boat for the first time. Diving in Palau with fish bigger than me.
Getting my first Award in Entertainment, until than, I thought I was terrible! I thought people were just trying to be nice when making compliments. Performing before my parents, who always support my crazy ideas.
The birth of Alyana, my little girl.
I love building stuff with my hands. I love to have a big laugh, it is medicine for the whole body. I love good sex, it has the same effect. And finding a woman who believes in me.
Who I'd like to meet: I'd like to meet people, dead or alive, relating to my interests in life.
Life is a canvas, we all have the choice to create our life as an artist creates his canvas, colorful or gray. I love to meet people from all walks of life and cultures because we all have something to share.
I enjoy nature more the man made things because God's creation stays in you forever, we remember moments, not money and things. Things are just stuff you can share with one another, they do not represent for who we are.
A run on the beach is more exiting than a dinner at a five star restaurant, because after the run you feel great inside your mind and body, after the restaurant you feel full in your stomach and empty in your pockets!
I love sailing and the feeling of being alone far away from civilization, only in communion with myself and fully aware of the responsibilities. I have learned to trust my actions and there is no one there to bail me from my bad choice, it's me and the sea.
