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Fleur Thesmar
"DEATH VALLEY", watercolor, mojave desert, Badwater, storm, sky, clouds, salt

2019

About the Item

DEATH VALLEY is a new watercolor on Arches paper by Fleur Thesmar. The artwork measures 22x30" and is professionally framed in white with UV protection, anti-glare glass. Framed it measures 26x34". The artist has written that this storm brewing over the Badwater Basin, the salt flats of Death Valley, led to her understanding the abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock – and that "the nature of a desert is chaos with hidden rules..." From Fleur Thesmar – "Before I painted this storm on the Death Valley salt flats called Badwater Basin, I didn’t really understand painters like Jackson Pollock, the random lines and marks on the canvas. Now I see why Pollock came to abstraction – because of the desert. The nature of a desert is chaos with hidden rules, especially for these salt crystals which are randomly organized. But it’s not like flowers: you need some brutality to paint it. Another thing that strikes me about the western landscape – the chasms, with a feeling of vertigo from the wilderness that can be conveyed by free movement of color on the paper, leaving sometimes open spaces." Having moved her family from France to America, artist Fleur Thesmar closely observed the changes in her world – from the seemingly obvious such as surrounding landscapes, the light of day and weather, the flowers, trees and shorelines – to the smaller less obvious shifts, such as how one behaves in a new world, in a new home, how one cherishes certain belongings and certain memories. Her artistic practice is borne out of that close observation and shift in perspective, and has led to a number of successful gallery shows in the U.S. and internationally. Fleur Thesmar has shown at Beacon Gallery in Boston MA, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn NY, Old West Museum, Cheyenne WY, Belmont Art Gallery, Belmont MA, and Salon Ile-de-France 2020, Bourg-La-Reine, France. Her work is on permanent display at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA. Fleur Thesmar graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France. She received her MSc Telecommunications Telecom in Paris, France, and MSc Signal Processing & Communications, Imperial College, London, England. Fleur Thesmar Currently lives in Boston, MA, where she received teachings from the MFA Boston studio.
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