published in the Packet

Published in the Princeton Packet.
February the 5th 2002
By: Jodi Thompson
Captivating Wilderness
Lower Makefield, Pa., artist Silvère Boureau has a wilderness painting exhibit in Yardley, Pa.

It is the dream of many American artists to travel across the Atlantic and paint along the Left Bank. Paris has traditionally been the spot for art and artists. Of course, Bucks County isn't exactly a cultural wasteland, either.
Still, it may be surprising that the child of a French abstract painter would choose to come to the U.S. to paint our wilderness, as is the case with Lower Makefield resident Silvère Boureau. His American landscapes in oil, acrylic and watercolor are on display at Delaware River Gallery in Yardley.
Mr. Boureau grew up in Brittany, along the west coast of France. His favorite pastime as a child was to make boats and ship messages in a bottle, with the hope they would reach America. "I didn't know that I'd end up on the other side of the Atlantic," he says. "That was very interesting for me to grow up by the sea on the other side of the pond. That's where I learned to love nature." His father, André Boureau, didn't push any of his eight children into art but provided lots of encouragement. Summers were spent surrounded by artists and their families from France, Holland and Spain. Mr. Boureau attended Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués in Roubaix, France, and studied graphic arts, art history, theater and painting at Université Paris VIII. He spent five years in an avant-garde puppet theater and taught art at Academie Versailles before coming to the United States as a tourist and becoming "totally captivated by the West." Six months later, he moved to Taos, N.M. The beautiful landscape and intriguing culture of Taos didn't provide Mr. Boureau with much opportunity. "I felt like it was too foreign for me and I felt like it was kind of voyeur for me to be there," he says. A friend offered him a place to stay in Brooklyn, N.Y., a place not as alien to him as Taos. Oddly enough, the comfort level in New York City didn't stir him to paint. His time in the Big Apple was artistically unproductive. The expressionistic style he had adopted in his early paintings didn't meet his needs. Instead, he was drawn to the wilderness of Maine. "The landscape made sense for me," Mr. Boureau says. "Painting landscape is really a oneness.
"He enjoys scouting out sites that will inspire him to paint. His work includes the wilds of Maine, the New Jersey Pine Barrens and areas around Bucks County. "(Painting or sketching in the outdoors is) like tapping into another dimension," Mr. Boureau says. "Suddenly, a landscape that doesn't mean much takes another meaning (when you) concentrate on it."I am in awe with the beauty of landscape, the beauty of creation. Sometimes it is just the sky. When you let the landscape, the beauty of it, the realization that the intensity of what you look at can fill you with joy. "Mainly, I paint nature. Coming from Western Europe, where the hand of man is on the landscape, there is no real wilderness." He finds it thrilling to discover a remote valley or corner where there isn't a sign of man's intervention on the land. These areas can be as limited as the triangle of land between Black Rock Road and River Road in Lower Makefield or as vast as Deer Isle, Maine.The rocky coast of Maine is a common subject for Mr. Boureau. He enjoys the view from a sea kayak and will photograph the astounding vistas to paint later in his home studio. At times, he'll be inspired to sketch or even watercolor directly from his watercraft, en plein air. Producing the larger oils on canvas is out of the question from a sea kayak as they "would act as a sail."
Mr. Boureau hasn't limited his work to canvas and paper. He paints on wood furniture and screens. His murals and decorative painting is visible in many private homes as well as the Nassau Inn, Princeton Alliance Church and Myers Associates Architects in Princeton, Architects Francis Cauffman and Foley Hoffman in Philadelphia also view his work daily, as do visitors to McGraw-Hill Publishing, House Beautiful magazine and Tiffany and Co. in New York City.
The stone and timber frame home Mr. Boureau shares with his wife, Anne Fulper, and their daughter, Ella, is well supplied with his artwork. A three-drawer chest sports the view of their winding drive in dappled sunlight through the many trees. In his studio, he has a photo of that bureau sitting on the driveway. It is almost camouflaged, the trees line up so well with their representations on wood. The paintings on the wall show nature in Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and right outside the window. The sea crashes against the rocky coast of Maine. Frost covers the Pine Barren grasses. An entire valley visible from High Rocks in Ralph Stover State Park belies the development of surrounding Bucks.
His screens are intriguing, coming in every size and shape imaginable. Next month, Home and Garden Television (HGTV) is featuring Mr. Boureau's painted screens in an episode of Modern Masters scheduled to air March 31 at 10:30 p.m.
"They were interested in having me paint a screen, like a cooking show," he says. He did several of the same screen in different stages of production, much in the way Julia Child pulls a steaming soufflé from the oven moments after putting in a dish of goo.
Mr. Boureau enjoys painting the screens. Close-ups of the bare branches of sycamore trees prove one of his favorite subjects. They are exquisite in their delicate splendor, a reminder of the fragility of our wilderness. "I wish," he says, "if I can, to make people conscious there is beauty around and we have to be careful not to destroy it.
"I just want to remind people that there's such beauty in nature." Mr. Boureau's screens, murals, painted furniture and canvases do precisely that.
Wilderness Landscapes by Silvère Boureau preview at Delaware River Gallery, 19 E. Afton Ave.,Yardley. The official opening is Feb. 23. Oils, acrylics and watercolors on canvas and paper are available, as well as prints of his work. Gallery hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

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