On the Work of 

Guillaume Caron

Painting and drawing - since the caves of Lascaux to the present day – has always been about searching. Mark-making on a surface has the dual effect of projecting what’s inside the conscious and unconscious mind while simultaneously providing the mind with information about our environment. Painting can help us understand our emotions and serve as communication for how we’re feeling to others. Artists train their eyes to truly see the objects they observe and practice translating that stimulus into a two-dimensional illusion. Thirty-thousand-years-ago artists were looking with great care at the animals that made their lives possible and when they could not observe their subjects, they translated that input into sublime renderings of the creatures they revered.

Contemporary painters are no different. Artists are effected by their environments and study the objects within it that are of interest. The way the cave painter expresses admiration for their subject, artists of today inflect powerful emotions into their work. Artists in today’s complex society express a wide variety of emotional feeling using an unlimited selection of subjects, whether it be their own emotional energy or the assemblage of rendered objects and the resulting narrative. Contemporary painter, Guillaume Caron is primarily projecting his inner experience onto the canvas. His artworks are heavily influenced by his own perilous experiences of life in the Amazon rainforest.

Through continuous, non-stop work, Caron creates an unending cascade of responses that lead to unexpected conclusions. The artist has described his process in the past as, “stumbling voluntarily for the pleasure of catching up.” When artists are in a flow state - continually working - the forces of nature conspire to assist. It’s the experience of divine assistance that brings so many artists back into the studio time and again. This communing with the Muse seems to be at the core of Caron’s work. As a result, his paintings are consistently fresh, surprising and thoroughly affected by what has come to be known as the “happy accident.” Happy accidents are nothing more than a sterile, modern, magic-free reinterpretation of the Muse. However, Caron’s paintings are nothing less than pure magic.

In Caron’s words: “Like our lives, events are superimposed, revealing the form and color chosen to tell the story. The choreographed gesture, thwarted by the pleasant accident, gives movement to the dance and prepares to welcome the hues that will dress the ceremony. Shapes and colors superimpose and reveal themselves as a whole - and like a totem seen from the sky - they will appear reconciled in each other for the final bouquet.”