With undulating shapes defined by rich colors and unusual textures, French born artist Annette Poitau's paintings currently on display at Christine Frechard Gallery in Squirrel Hill are a sight to behold. Even from the street, where a massive untitled triptych can be seen through the gallery's front window, the vibrant colors of the artist's palette are enough to pull you in from the sidewalk.
Poitau's solo show, "Fusion Naturelle," is only on exhibit for two more weeks, but that allows for plenty of time to see it before it comes down. And considering the evocative nature of these abstract paintings, you'll be glad you did.
For example, "Untitled 56" gives one the sense of water crashing over the surface of a glacier. "Untitled 57" evokes the heat of a desert. And "Untitled 103" looks to be as cold as a frozen sunset in mid-winter.
As the artist states: "Every painting is a sort of intimate dance with matter and primordial gestures, a dialogue between my will and the chemical reaction of the colors, their disappearance and their re-emergence in new incarnations. The painting reveals itself with time. It makes its own sense, discovers its soul."
All of the paintings are abstract, but profoundly grounded in dynamic, primordial natural forms, especially elements of the human body. The microcosm that is the curvature of an arm may end up evoking the macrocosm of a sweeping imaginary landscape. "My paintings often call to mind the rich colors and textures of the Earth," she says.
"In creating them, I continue to explore a technique I discovered many years ago that is analogous to the geological processes of sedimentation and erosion that shape the Earth," Poitau says.
When creating her works, Poitau begins by laying down a brushy, underlying composition directly on the canvas, or paper, with thick paint and brushes. This is generally the only brushwork. "I prepare my oils in a liquid form, each color in a separate container," Poitau says. "One by one, I pour them on the horizontal canvas, moving it gently and carefully to direct the flow of the paint and control the blending of the colors."
Because the paint needs to dry before Poitau adds the next layer, she works on several paintings at the same time. Layers are added and sometimes partially effaced, over and over, as often as is necessary for the piece to emerge in an incarnation that compels her to stop. In this way, the painting reveals itself over time, "making its own sense," Poitau says.
Poitau was born in Northern France and received her master of fine arts from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. While a student, she also had the opportunity to study painting at Cooper Union in New York City. After showing her work extensively in France, she moved to Pacifica, Calif., just south of San Francisco, where she lived for 12 years before moving to Oberlin, Ohio, where she has lived and worked on her art for the past four years.
She says she gravitated toward art at an early age, in large part thanks to her dyslexia. "Art was a non-verbal form of experience and communication that I found liberating and rewarding in so many ways," she says, as a result. "I became seriously involved with painting and drawing as a teenager. My teachers repeatedly remarked on my sense of color. Later on, I realized that they had been right, that the essence of my work lay in my fascination with color and my passion for exploring it in the context of organic forms and textures."
While an exchange student at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art school in New York some 20 years ago, Poitau discovered a technique of painting that she has continued to develop, refine and master to this day.
"The method is similar to that of a musical improviser, who creates in real time with her or his chosen musical materials through an interactive process of playing and listening, acting and reacting to the results," she says. "It involves mixing the colors directly on the canvas, which is not placed on an easel but on the floor. The idea is reminiscent of Pollack's drippings, except that I do not throw the paint at a static canvas but rather pour it and direct it through controlled movement of the canvas itself."
Although Poitau has been working in a similar manner for over two decades, each time she approaches a new painting, she says, "it remains an extraordinary adventure, an exciting visual journey of discovery."
Additional Information:'Annette Poitau: Fusion Naturelle'
When: Through April 15. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; noon to 4 p.m. Sundays
Admission: Free
Where: Christine Frechard Gallery, 5871 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill
Details: 412-421-8888 or website
