Although an experienced, but self-proclaimed critic, I do not profess to have absolute infallibility when it comes to the proper assessment of one's style and ability.
However, knowing Nelson Henriot personally as an artist and a friend, I can affirm with unabashed conviction that his work with it's unique style, has left me with a deep and profound esteem for the subconscious emotional feelings he is capable of awakening within oneself.

This "Brave Knight and Huntsman of Rocking Waders" actually describes himself as such, living submerged within his own private metaphorical time capsule, subliminally depositing the foundations of a revolutionary new Art-form, termed "New-Figurative Graphic Avant-Gardism".

His vast canvas of "Timeless Line-Art" basically opposes the current waves of "Postmodernist- Classicism", accordingly becoming the unabridged epitome of minimalism. The unique way in which Nelson Henriot's graphic line-play interacts with mythology, creates a near magical "Déjà-Vu" feeling, as if the legendary fauna of Atlantis leaps-up from the paper and consumes your mind with pleasant visions of earlier predestined times. His own words echo and emphasize this point, when he states; "My drawings reveal a definite style, it's own personal "ISM" so to speak, however, there is no doubt in my mind that these works are the direct consequence of subconscious influences, namely ancient civilizations, both Mediterranean and others. My interpretations are in some ways a hymn, or private poetic tribute to polytheism and the animal world".

Indeed, many of Nelson Henriot's scenes suggest the sea, and are richly depicted with mythical creatures of far-away shores and times. He has the knack for inserting distant echoes of elegant form, doing it with such finesse that you're barely aware of them at first. For example, the frieze-line of his 'Study on the theme - "The Young Albatross" '97 drawing, runs parallel to the picture's plane and recalls memories of Minoan fresco's from millenniums ago.
Nelson Henriot's work abounds with unrivaled metaphors. Sometimes they are characters of eccentric apparitions and security becomes an illusion. Tales of anguished gestation and sorcery, although already the substance of legends, intertwine both symmetrically and asymmetrical, un- aware of the many galaxies that cross their pre-destined pathways. Born on the wings of his boundless imagination, the artist is equally at ease engulfed in a world beneath the waves, drifting throughout the universe or just mingling amongst the mutants, unicorns and other bizarre "beasts".

Nelson Henriot goes on to say; "I interpret this view, through my own individual prism, as an unusually structured technique albeit homogeneous, but definitely showing evidence that the Animal-Kingdom legacy will remain as an infinite source of renewed inspiration, for all artists, now and in the foreseeable future. Since I was about 6 or 7 years old, I've practically done everything committing my time, over a period of time, in order to specifically develop my individual style and technique, in harmony with myself".

"It seems to me however, that lately all worldly respect for "A Divine Creation" is rapidly becoming a fleeing memory to most. Therefore, my drawings are in profound disagreement with the current tendencies of Contemporary Art. They remove themselves entirely from this trend, by my refusal to accept the positive or negative elements of greed, in our present-day consumption society. The inconsistencies of these existing trends in their totality, are a basic paradox to an artist. It's like having one foot in the present and another in the future. It places the artist in the uncomfortable position of having to do his own self-promotion, by trying to reach the masses for whom "Avant-Gardism" terminology is fundamentally contestable. Hence, another reason why my works are at no time politically influenced or meant to be reminiscent of antiquity"!

Nelson Henriot is right, when he predicts the end of docile historicism and isn't alarmed by metaphors. Instead, he insists that the essence of his contrived precision, amplifies the rethinking of structured self-reliance. As a genuine French artist, he is proud of his pure Latin heritage.

His works are inimitable and at all times emancipating.
Few should be so fortunate, as to know his true spirit !