Bee Tree, Robert Marchessault
Oil on panel, 76cm x 76cm
Provenance: McLarry Fine Art, Sante Fe.
Robert Marchessault is a Canadian painter focused on trees. Much of his work for the past 35 years has been devoted to tree forms and their symbolic meanings. Whether as individual trees or as groupings in a landscape, his unmistakable style finds ways to move viewers aesthetically and emotionally. An underlying passion for ecological responsibility prompts his art. A tree is universally understood as a metaphor for life; in Marchessault's hands the more subtle and introspective aspects are explored.
Artist Statement
“I see trees, plants and bushes as tracing energetic linkages between earth and sky.
The tree breathes what we exhale. When we exhale, the tree breathes. So. We have a common destiny with the tree. We are all from the earth.
My landscape paintings are composed from memories of an experience. I use memory as a filtering agent to distil an image for a painting, discarding useless details. I do occasional on-site drawings or photographs which pile up in my studio; but I do not generally refer to them much while making a painting.. When a painting is complete it must reflect an emotional sensation that calls to mind some aspect of my remembered perceptions.” (1)