Jean-Paul Courchia is a highly successful painter both in Europe and in America. His oils on canvas were displayed in Marseille in the famous Provençal Gallery Jouvène, which Van Gogh and Cezanne called home for their artwork. Her Highness Queen Paola of Belgium, Mr. and Mrs. Shinomiya, General Consul of Japan in Marseille, and Mr. Aldon James, president of the National Arts Club in New-York, are avid collectors of his work. As early as 1998, art historian Alauzen Di Genova, specialist in Provençal art, said of the young painter's beginnings (1998 "Provençal Masters"): "The astonishing fact in Jean-Paul Courchia's new career is that a public has been created around him, by spontaneous generation, ranging from simple exhibition visitors to collectors of Provençal artists." He quotes Pierre Signoret, who added in 1992: "The rigor of framing, the fluidity of execution, the audacity of the layout reflects a rigor and a metaphysical stripping, so great is the tension that emerges from these works deprived of all human presence."
As for influences, if he recognizes his admiration for Cézanne, Matisse, Verdilhan, Camoin and Lesbros, critics also found concordances with Marquet. In 2000, an article pushes his career to an international level. "He painted Marseilles and the south as he breathed their perfumes of great breadth and fertile soil. In the intoxication of colors and the plenitude of his art, Jean-Paul Courchia borrows the wake of the masters of the Provençal School. The very ones who offer behind each of their canvases the sun and life" This is how Caroline Guiol describes the painting of Jean-Paul Courchia in the world-famous magazine “Côté Sud”. This article introduced the Queen Paola of Belgium to meet the artist and acquire several of his work for her summer home in France. More recently, in 2016, the city of Marseille honored Jean Paul Courchia in a six-month long exhibit at the Municipal Archives. In this exhibition, Jean Paul Courchia exhibited twelve paintings inspired by antique documents depicting the city of Marseille and its port to which he was given unprecedented access to by the Municipal Archives.
Courchia is also a keen public speaker, with a special ability to explain through a simple approach the way we see art. Being both a medical doctor and a world-renowned artist has allowed Jean-Paul Courchia to study and understand how people look at works of art. Using eye tracking technologies, he has been able to analyze eye movement patterns of subjects in front of famous works of art. His work has been published in scientific journals and presented at keynote adresses in both France and the United States. This work on the human mind has brought to the light the special bond that form between an artist and its spectator. This bond, that transcends both time and place, gives us a privileged look into the inner workings of the human mind. It is not surprising that this project has sparked the interest of both scientific organizations such as the French Society of Ophthalmology and artistic foundations such as Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.
Since January 2018 Jean Paul Courchia is dedicated entirely to his art and his research.
