Entre Fleurs et Mer

As a “contemporary realist painter,” i am constantly looking for visual ways to explore shapes, make meaningful marks, establish color relationships, organize space, find metaphors. Nature (“morte” and “vivante”) reliably provides multiple opportunities.

I have recently become visually fascinated by the northern coast and its unruly ocean and crashing waves, unpredictable currents, enduring rocks, ever changing contours and light, moody reflections, moving skies. Its ominous presence elicits both anxiety and comfort, unease and reverence, danger and trepidation, a certain longing… It is a place of chaos where the whimsical can rapidly transform into the catastrophic! (and environmental concerns) Contradictory emotional states get amped up! (Which is what compels me to paint!) The intimacy of my seascapes is a humble attempt to tame this mysterious force.

Oscillating between intimate connections with Nature, I also look at familiar objects and their reassuring domesticity. The things i care about, their tactile presence, their vibrant simplicity, their ephemeral power, their feminine modesty, the way I arrange them, the way they embody the memory of times and people in my life, their “hidden” little massages and drama, their seemingly unimportance… Still lifes hold symbols, seasonal cycles, personal meaning, a sense of vanitas , despite their “no fuss” quality. The same way the ocean does.

In the end, these small paintings are a quiet celebration of life, impermanence and hope and solitary bliss.
-Marie Van Elder