Featured Artist Marc Poisson

Oil painter Marc Poisson captures the dramatic beauty of Australian and South African landscapes. View more of his art by visiting his website.

 

 

From as early as I can remember I had an intense interest in the fine arts. I still remember how, at the age of about seven, I was drawing and painting flowers in the school playground. I also remember, as I entered my early teens, the excitement of painting my first oil paintings and using my tuck money for school to buy the latest colour paint tube from the art shop.

 

 

I also remember taking art lessons from an elderly British artist who inspired me to have more confidence in my own abilities.

 

 

In my twenties I worked in an art gallery. What an experience that turned out to be! I became more familiar with good quality art and the fascinating artists who created them. This experience moved me to eventually paint full-time from my late twenties onward.

 

 

Now approaching the autumn of my life and having painted professionally for more than thirty-five years, I still find I get excited with the challenging prospect of new ideas and mediums, a new technique or a different approach to familiar scenes. I still feel the same thrill when observing how the prevailing light falls magically on a scene, illuminating its stunning beauty which always compels me to continually express this excitement in colourful impasto oil paint.

 

 

Self-taught, working in the mediums of oil, acrylic, pastel and watercolour, I have devoted myself to enhancing or honing my skills to portray the striking light effects on subject matter that moves me emotionally—to share what impresses me with others.

 

 

To this end, I spend much time teaching, conducting workshops and producing tutorial videos on YouTube to assist others. In this way I can share the knowledge and experience I have built up over time.

 

 

Perfecting my art will take a lifetime, but I am determined to keep working at achieving the best that I can within the limitations of the pigments we use. How can we ever really emulate light?

 

 

But still, how I enjoy the satisfaction and thrill of applying harmonious, soft, creamy mixtures of impasto paint on canvas with a painting knife–finding the broken mixtures of pigment to aptly describe what I see in front of my easel. And then the joy of the final touches that bring the work to its completion.

 

 

Additionally, I will also keep working at achieving a rendering that is more loose, impressionistic and more painterly, by loosening up my brush strokes even more. In this way I can focus on what is most important in my work.

 

 

These thoughts motivate me constantly to the point that each morning as I wake, I am eager to embrace the joys and challenges of yet another day to express the beauty around me as an artist.

Yes, for me, the celebration of art is a celebration of life!

 

Artist Marc Poisson invites you to follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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