Between mid-2013 and the end of 2014 Claude Bolduc produced more than 140 drawings on the theme of religion’s influence on the emotional psychology of intimacy and relationship. As most were produced in the medium of ink and reddish pastel he called the series ‘Sanguines’, being both the French word for the colour blood-red and for the genre of producing drawings using that colour – and of course with the deliberate intention of drawing attention to the role of blood in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition.

It is no coincidence that in addition to the all-pervasive sexual imagery the drawings include numerous pins/nails, crosses/crucifixes, padlocks and ever-present devils; the artist was clearly delving deeply into a Catholic tradition which had moulded so much of his cultural and psychological background.

We have included here fewer than half of Bolduc’s ‘Sanguines’ – if you would like to see them all, the online gallery can be found here.