Presence in Azure

About Presence in Azure

An expression of beauty. Master colourist Paul Fournier has captured the essence of sparkling azure blue waters and sea life in this lyrical abstract painting. A cluster of yellow, orange, cerise and purple organic shapes seem to float on a cool blue backdrop highlighted by white ‘stars’.

Fournier received early praise from the distinguished NY art critic, Donald Kuspit who described his colourful Fauvist-like work as that of an ‘exotic modernist.’ Fauvism was a post-impressionist movement in France (think Matisse) characterized by an imaginative use of colour. In the sixties, Fournier was part of a group of gifted Toronto painters…Milly Ristvedt, K.M. Graham and David Bolduc, among them who explored the techniques and forms of abstraction.

“You can do so many things with paint…it’s a wonderland.” Paul Fournier

He was born during the Great Depression in Simcoe, Ontario. He first studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1959 and went on to study printmaking at McMaster University in Hamilton in 1967. Fournier also received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from McMaster in 1996 where he’d also been the artist in residence.
During a career that spans six decades, Fournier has had solo exhibitions in several Canadian cities and in the U.S. His work is held in private collections in North and South America, and Europe. Public collections include the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Sculpture Garden in Washington and the Tate Museum in London.