Gary David Fournier Studio

Monet, my favorite impressionist painter, provided me with a vision of where I’d like to go with my artwork. I'm still studying his work and the overall impressionist methodology.  Someday I hope to develop the skill and master the technique. Over the many years since my initial art training in high school and later in college, I've dabbled with various media and techniques, but my time was too limited to be serious about art. Things like career, family and Vietnam got in my way. Now I paint to enjoy the creative process and to portray the elements and scenes of the natural world using my own style and I’ve fully committed to art as a means of personal free expression. I’m inspired by nature and natures beauty. I try to recreate, in my own style, what nature shows me when I really look hard at the images I see. My subjects come from images I recall and recreate from my global travels (including the USA, Italy in 2016 and two visits to the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, and France), personal photos and even travel brochures.

I enjoy studying still life images and development of composition and use of light and texture; sea and water images trying to portray the power of the sea, reflective properties of still waters or the tranquility of a mountain stream; farmland and structures like old barns and farm houses with the interesting structural deterioration and associated color; animals-particularly horses and k-nines; and landscapes incorporating the seasons and the colors of the seasons.

Most of my works are in oil and acrylic and water color. Recently I’ve worked with Japanese ink and rice paper, melted metal on canvas, textured cloth, and modeling paste. I try to combine impressionism using the frequent and visible brush strokes and light, and canvas texture to emphasize elements of my subjects. I often use color mixing on the canvas rather than the palette and in so doing I am amazed at the affect that often results. Experimentation with cold wax and oil, extra heavy gesso base with acrylic layers and more work with the palette knife have taken me in new directions. 

My goal first is always to let others enjoy my artwork. Second, aside from becoming more proficient with the impressionism style, my goal is to learn more techniques, perfecting my skills and developing more skill with the competitive art world.