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Duffaut started painting after an experience he had in a dream where a woman, who he believed was either the Virgin or his own wife, came to him and said, ‘Préfète, when you wake up in the morning I want you to start painting’. His paintings vividly depict his dreams – which were of imaginary cities and boat-filled harbours in the bay of Jacmel – and reveal his poetic sense, mystical tendencies and broad imagination.

Duffaut’s paintings present the viewer with scenes from seemingly imaginary worlds, yet rather than entirely surreal dreamscapes, they are built from the many signs and symbols that form the tangible and intangible layers of a place. Drawing upon and mixing histories, myths, ceremonies, cities, people, spirits and symbols – from both Vodou and Catholicism – Duffaut’s paintings depict worlds that he might have inhabited, or those he has felt, imagined and composed. This sense of world-building is enhanced by perspectival shifts and varied use of scale – his figures seem to rise up against other planes of small detail, creating intricate topographies encompassing the spiritual, cultural, historical and material layers of a place.