Thérèse Boisclair

James Wcy­coff

Thérèse Bois­clair is an inter­na­tional artist whose mono­lithic water­color Works thread together con­cep­tual prac­tices with mate­r­ial prac­tices, exca­vat­ing mem­ory and lived expe­ri­ence in order to dis­till the essences of these imma­te­r­ial events into translu­cent images that glow, vibrate, and rever­ber­ate together in unex­pected and mag­i­cal ways. Evok­ing an array of psy­cho­log­i­cal notes, her work enables view­ers to rest, reflect, med­i­tate, and cel­e­brate, instill­ing a range of emo­tional responses. One such feel­ing is pas­sion, as demon­strated by the work Vers la lumière, whose apoc­a­lyp­tic abstrac­tion fuses futur­ist land­scapes with dream­scapes, incor­po­rat­ing deca­dent color and exu­ber­ant design ele­ments. Works on view such as Vers le boisée, and Vers la lumière, reflect a sense of trans­for­ma­tion, ethe­re­al­ity, and indi­vid­u­al­ity that are among the most pro­found threads of life. Yet, not all the work is so dense. More eso­teric and lumi­nous in ambiance are the three works that com­prise Fire Storm col­lec­tively. This trip­tych is more dis­persed com­po­si­tion of del­i­cately float­ing stains of vibrant saf­fron, Crim­son and umber.

Boisclair’s paint­ings appear weight­less and ethe­real, intu­itively encour­ag­ing view­ers to extend their gaze inward. In her del­i­cate water­color land­scapes, such as Ciel De Feu, her fluid and sat­u­rated strokes caress the paint­ing sur­face to cre­ate an image depict­ing a for­est sil­hou­et­ted against a back­drop of sea and sun­set, allow­ing col­ors from azure and peri­win­kle to melon and crim­son to inter­min­gle in a rich quasi-abstraction that is rem­i­nis­cent of Gaugin’s trop­i­cal land­scapes. Here the trans­parency of light emanates through her wil­lowy strokes, evok­ing the warmth and heat of the sun and fluid cool­ness of the water. Ulti­mately, this is the essence of Boisclair’s art—an oth­er­worldly voy­age into the unknown that plunges the depths of the sub­con­scious, and the heights of our inspi­ra­tional dreams, indulging our whim­si­cal free spir­its into a realm that is both vision­ary and con­tem­pla­tive, exper­i­men­tal and stud­ied, and where all the threads of life merge into a united fab­ric of expe­ri­ence and existence.

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