ROBERT MARCHESSAULT | AN EXHANGE OF FORCES

Robert Marchessault’s love of trees is evident in his compositions. Painted with intricate detail and luminous color, Marchessault’s trees are often derived from the artist's imagination, rather than from specific tree species. His vast knowledge of trees (and hands-on experience of extensive planting and tending) contributes to the life he breathes into each of his paintings. Tree subjects float on colorful, atmospheric backgrounds, allowing for some of his repertoire to approach landscape painting -- but in an immediately recognizable style all his own that balances an arboreal foreground within abstract washes or clouds.

Robert Marchessault received a Visual Arts Diploma from Dawson College, Montreal, QC; a BFA from Concordia University, Montreal, QC; and an MA from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON. His work has been shown internationally including at Gotland Museum, Visby, Sweden, and many galleries across North America. He has received dozens of awards including a Canada Council Travel Grant and has received extensive press coverage. Marchessault’s paintings are in numerous art collections such as 20th Century Fox, Bank of Montreal, Rothschilds Inc, and Royal Bank.

Since the early 2000s tree images have been prominent in my work. I have found that their forms embody much of what I want to express on my canvases. The development of my imagery has been a long process. In this exhibition viewers will see more steps in my investigation. As always, colour, light and space are of great interest to me. My compositions try to express aspects of our human conditions. I paint a lot of trees; they offer a big range of emotions. It is from the likes of Morandi and other modern painters who use a repeating motif that I understand it is possible to find endless riches by exploring within a constrained set or idea.

Trees are also a major theme throughout visual art. Artists express a large range of sentiments using trees as a subject. Organizations devoted to the environment frequently use tree images to grab our attention and harness our feelings. Most people understand the sentiments tree shapes can imply. Like the human form, trees echo a profound range of human emotions. This is why I use their shapes, colours and textures to celebrate my perceptions that are both not uncommon and also intensely personal. For me, making and experiencing art begins non-verbally. The way the energy flows up and through a tree is like music. Growing conditions and climate shape a tree’s form. I see parallels with our own life journeys. As such, trees provide me with an endless variation that sustains my passions as a painter.

The title of this exhibition, Sage, describes a desert bush I have come to love and admire. It’s a theme I have returned to frequently. I enjoy the way aridity, wind and stress create these gnarly shapes with their exciting compositional possibilities. I love the feel of the energies at play when making these works.

2023 Exhibition Catalog An Exchange of Forces

2021 Exhibition Summary Grow/Re-Grow

2021 Exhibition Catalog Grow/Re-Grow

2020 Interview February

2020 Studio Tour

2018 Exhibition Catalog The Lorax Dreams

2016 Exhibition Catalog New Works Now

2014 Exhibition Catalog Forest For The Trees