The paintings have highly evocative names like The Sun, Desert Flower, The Black Dahlia and Ballet. The works travel between the figurative and abstract while imparting upon the color, largely red and yellow, and light a vibrant and energetic aura.

Traveler, painter, poet and photographer, the contemporary French artist Tony Soulié is regarded as one of the leading painters of the Nouvelle Abstraction French movement of the 1970s and 1980s. He works in mixed mediums, often painting over his photographs. His photo paintings, as he calls them, are based on black and white photographs of the faraway lands he has travelled to, embellished with varnish and carborundum powder added to acrylic paint.

His works are currently on show in the majestic Southern Orangerie of the Chateau of Auvers within the context of the Auvers-sur-Oise Festival, one of the most prestigious music festivals in Europe, in a magnificent 17th century vaulted space. So if you can’t be in France right now, The Gourmet Gazette brings these vibrant paintings to you.

Sixteen works, mostly large format made using mixed techniques are being presented in an exhibition entitled Keeping Time to the Sky. The works depict the themes of flowers and landscapes. The artist describes the works as being ritual soul healing flowers and they offer a flamboyant and optimistic ode to the vital momentum of nature. Tony Soulié’s play with color and light are a tribute in a way to the masters of the Oise Valley many of whom drew their inspiration from the 17th century Chateau of Auvers like Daubigny, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh who would live and die in Auvers-sur-Oise.
The show is running until September 19th.
©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette
http://www.chateau-auvers.fr
Château d’Auvers / Orangerie SudRue François Mitterrand
95430 Auvers-sur-Oise, France
33 (0)1 34 48 48 45