"Since I have been vacationing in Maine for many years, it has become a place of refuge from my daily life, but it also feels like home because of its familiarity. Yet, the challenge of the openness of space and hyper-reality of light continues to offer me profound challenges to the changing moods of light and its effect on consciousness. While painting on location, I try to capture the feeling of color, light and shade while suppressing the details in order to emphasize their shapes. The studio painting begins very much like an outdoor painting. The large masses of light and shade are composed much like a jigsaw puzzle, fitting all the pieces in until the whole image comes together. We all experience natural beauty in a different way. As I try to express mine through painting, the experience changes because aesthetic decisions are made that are intended to have the viewer experience a heightened sense of awareness of the scene as painting. It is meant to touch the emotions and place the viewer in another world."

Gilbert Riou

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For additional information, updated biography etc.,
contact Sherry French,
Director of Sherry French Gallery at 212-647-8867.


Click here for artist's biography Gilbert Riou