Olivier Suire Verley

"For my 2024 American exhibition, I retraced my intimacy with nature and, in particular, with trees. The Covid period was conducive to new inspirations. There are expanses of swamps and forests around me which have been my model and, of course, the sea which caresses my island. It is the power and the architecture, the movement, the wind in the trees, of the conifers, which are the basis of much of my work. This does not exclude the human presence which is so dear to me. The use of blue evokes for me sobriety, inner peace, renewal, oxygen, maturity, light.”

Olivier Suire Verley was born October 2, 1952 in La Rochelle (on the Atlantic coast of France, a historic site of religious war between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the XVIIth century) to a family of artists. His grandfather Louis Suire was a renowned painter (Olivier added his mother’s maiden name, Verley to his father’s name so as not to be confused with his grandfather, whom he cherished and admired) and his father Claude (now retired) was a publisher of art books and is an amateur painter himself.

Olivier studied in La Rochelle first, then in Tours with Jean Abadie. Moving to Paris, he also studied etching with Pierre Gandon, Albert Decaris and Caillevaert Brun. Of a surrealistic tendency, the themes of his paintings of the time were based upon evasion from reality, fantastic travels and the sea. During that period, the colors in his palette were dark and melancholic. He illustrated texts by Cliford Simac and Asimov for the publisher Louis Pauwels.

1982 marked a profound change in Olivier’s inspiration: as by a refining process, it turned to become a quest for the essentiality in life, leading the artist to discover the salutary power of color. From that time onwards, his themes also changed; landscapes, still lifes, portraits and again, the ever-present sea — the sea of Île de Ré — a small island off La Rochelle. He left Paris definitively and settled on that island, where he lives and works today.

Since then, his inspiration has drawn first from the colors of the holiday season in Île de Ré and on the Atlantic coast of France; then from those of Paris streets in winter or at night, and more recently from the light of Morocco and Spain. Today, Olivier seeks to meditate again on evasion, the elsewhere of our dreams, of our regrets sometimes, and of our hopes forever.

Always looking for new lights, Olivier travels often with many visits to Italy (Rome, Venice), Japan, China, Morocco, Spain, Egypt, Mauritius, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, etc.

He shows throughout France, Spain, in China, Japan and, in the United States, exclusively at the Addison Art Gallery. His work is featured multiple books and films.

Artist's Statement
Helen and I have been working together for seventeen years now at the rhythm of one one-man show every other year. It's already our fourteenth birthday, our ninth show. Time passes so quickly!

I am an optimistic anxious, and I try to perceive the beautiful side of things, without becoming angelic. I hope, and trust, this exhibition will be as lively and full of spontaneity as the previous eight.

The eclecticism of Helen's choices, the friendliness of her collector friends, their loyalty and courage to open themselves to less conventional art forms.

My first inspiration remains the human being and his environment, his connivance. The small scenes of life become exceptional if we know how to pay attention. Lights and movements fleeting, dynamic, our hesitations that give meaning to life. My inspiration often comes from situations or product at totally unexpected times. It's like love at first sight. Nothing prepares you for it, there is no rule; a meeting, a conversation, a book, a landscape, a woman or even a little nostalgia. I had a great trip to Asia last winter and you may find a new inspiration in my paintings.

I too live on a coast: that of an island in the Atlantic, the island of Ré. Its charms could be mistaken for those of Cape Cod. The light, the sand dunes, the island character imposed on us by geography, the solidarity of the seafarers and the endless sky that opens the heart and the mind.

It was with a mixed excitement that I came to Cape Cod for the first time in 2005, at the invitation of Helen Addison, to show my work to many collectors - or should I say friends, since Helen has the rare gift of making her guests feel at home in her gallery.

The joy of welcoming my wife Anne-Marie and myself overwhelmed me with joy. Not to mention the added pleasure of seeing my paintings appreciated (and bought!) by connoisseurs.

Today, I feel the same excitement at the approach of this ninth show! It is always a great joy for an experienced artist to meet new people, as if making new friends. This is especially true for me with the American people, thanks to the dedicated energy of Helen Addison.

In seventeen years, of course, my painting has evolved, like the eyes of my faithful collectors and it is a pleasure to travel together again, in 2019, towards this infinite horizon of painting. Passion has no age, its insatiable audacity, always to go further, to surprise itself.

I come back this year, as if it was the first time to present my work, emotions, joys of questioning. I hope that you will see my sincerity, my love of life and especially the need for sharing that you know so well fill.

About his beloved Île de Ré
For many a visitor, the name “Ile de Ré” brings up visions of clear, watery colors; on the contrary, I see in these sceneries of sea and rural landscapes some very strong contrasts between the exuberant greens of the vegetation, the blue limpidity of the skies, and the brownish yellowness of the rocky paths: all these violent tonalities splash my face like sprays sequined by salt. Clusters of salt marshes at the sharp northwest end of the island remain one of my preferred themes of paintings; nearly abandoned nowadays, they provide an ideal shelter for migratory birds. Water canals form with the marshes a patchwork of mirrors separated by stretches of dry earth and parched grass.