Working in a style he describes as “abstract impressionistic,” French draftsman and painter Frederic Choisel aims to capture the “new exactitude” of his subjects, as in Black Roof in Paris (2009), a picture that suggests a certain time and place even in the absence of figuration. Choisel cites a range of historical artists and artistic movements as sources of inspiration, including the Dutch and Spanish Baroque (and its dramatic treatment of form and light) and the 19th-century French innovators Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Choisel’s background in film and photography also informs his method: he often uses a camera to photograph fleeting images, which he then uses as a jumping off point for his paintings. The works echo those of noted influences Willem de Kooning and Nicholas de Staël, artists who shared Choisel’s dual urges to honor artistic tradition while finding new, non-literal means of representation.