| When Michel Lablais discovered Asia some 50 years ago, it completely diverted his artistic imagination. From early childhood Lablais was set on becoming a painter, to which end he attended the Ecole des Arts Appliques in Paris. By the time he reached the age of military service he and some school friends had hit on an unusual scheme - to become cartographers in Indochina, then a French colony, instead of infantrymen in the barracks at Cahors or Perigueux. As it turned out, Lablais fell ill and instead the army bundled him off to a convalesce in Cambodia. There he discovered the ruined Khmer temple of Angkor Wat, exotic and inspiring, and the beginning of his revelation and love affair with Asia began.
He was deeply influenced by his time spent in Asia, and he returned there time and again throughout his life. During his most recent visit in 1995, Lablais completed about 80 watercolors in a single month. After setting out to gain a serious overview of Asian art, he had found himself absorbed by the daily lives of ordinary modern Chinese people, the market stalls and the street life. Above all, the daily ritual and refinement of Chinese cuisine riveted him. The sophistication of the tea ceremony, the cups and bowls, the colors he had always loved: reds, blue and white, dark-greys, ochres, sandy shades, and earthy browns. These were the things he longed to paint, and paint he did. Michel Lablais has just returned from Angkor Wat 50 years after his first visit stating, "Nothing has changed, including my love for art, painting, and my love affair with Asia."
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