When Vallon was 55, he chose to go back to school to take painting classes, where he was fortunate to meet Master Artist Pierre Petit, who would teach him pastel techniques. M. Petit, not only became a close friend, he taught Vallon the techniques of painting and pastel, thus creating a real link between drawing and painting for the artist. As an admirer of Impressionism, as well as a great lover of nature, he immediately seized upon the possibilities of perpetuating the instantaneity of a moment through pastel.
In this way, he discovered painting en plein air (in the open air), a technique so cherished by Claude Monet, of whom he was particularly fond. “En plein air,” became the only way of painting for Vallon. He often said that “painting from photographs or postcards isn’t really painting.” As an “Impressionist painter of Nature in Nature,” he was often photographed while he painted, his easel set up in the countryside facing the “motif” or scene he was painting.
He did paint in his studio, however, but only to reproduce some of his pastel work in oil, a technique in which he was also skilled. He also drew still life in his studio, such as the study of numerous bouquets to which he would devote a large number of his pastel drawings. The beauty of each pastel drawing was enhanced with vibrant colors.
A painter deeply rooted in nature, Vallon had a perfect grasp of the Impressionist technique, working methodically and brilliantly. He traveled throughout France, each time bringing back paintings that he had, once again, accomplished right on the spot.
For him, the natural landscapes were synonymous with peace, happiness, delight, and a wonderful excuse for perfecting his pastel technique. His sense of the atmosphere and ephemeral light made him a great Impressionist. He abandoned the linear forms of a drawing’s traditional construction in favor of a search for colors and effects of light.
Carrying on the precepts of his illustrious Masters, Vallon excelled in accurately translating the natural atmosphere by endeavoring to capture the varied effects of light, depending on the time of day and season. His work was not just descriptive, but emotional.
Through frenzied work, he developed a jealously guarded personal technique: the application of the pastel using a knife, in the same way as in oil painting. This was his revolutionary technique. He manipulated shades and warm harmonies with rare but very clear tonalities, lighting up each of his works of art.
At once a tireless worker and cheerful person, his creations multiplied, and light dominated his work. He excluded black from his palette, and his very personal use of color, along with his pastel-palette-knife technique, became his style. His paintings are rich in bluish tones that light up the shadows harboring wildly colored vibrations with a splash of warm colors that spiral up from the ground to the tree tops and the turquoise and mauve shades of the sky. While other painters were still using dark colors, he preferred to relate light colors and light.
