Michel Soucy
Painting
Born in Schefferville, Quebec, Canada
A Canadian scenic and visual artist who graduated from Central Saint Martin’s College of Arts and Design in London, Michel Soucy has worked in the world of the arts for about twenty years.
His pictorial approach is both assertive and elusive. The canvases include elements that can be clearly seen and others that are only suggested. The viewer’s glance is caught by a promise of things that may or may not be. The ethereal nature of the objects gazed upon – frail and delicately painted – takes on a seemingly solid nature.
Michel Soucy was particularly interested in body image. Tirelessly scrutinized, in painting as in photography, body parts are considered in an almost surgical manner. Under the microscopic angle, the prospect is troubling, the subject is renewed. Exploration of the head, skin or organs ... flesh turns into textures, colourful concretions. They offer a new perspective on the transfigured body and mind. The woman’s body always inspired him. With a corset it’s even more attractive especially seen from the back so you don’t see who it is so your imagination does the rest. I did the work of creating these beautiful woman’s back, so we can fantasy in an arty way. No vulgarity, just erotism, sensuality and glimpse of violence. The image of women soothes violence, makes death poetic. To my orphaned eyes, one eye opens to the world, another is lost in an inner torment. I am not afraid of revealing abused women, sacrificed children, a burned Jeanne, tormented Inuit ...
He explored the expression of violence, hidden monsters, Tecstasy and horror intertwined.
Today, Michel Soucy changes his mind to explore abstraction. He imagines landscapes and transfigures them, in an abstract and subtle way, in apparently monochrome paintings. These abstract landscapes drive us towards our own imagination (Truman Capote: ' the landscapes are windows on the imagination of the characters ').
Michel Soucy writes: "the landscapes are, for me, abstractions of the Nature. By painting them, I keep intrinsically the way I feel in front of the unspeakable: a colour, a texture, a movement translate a cloudy spell, a happy or disturbing atmosphere….a window towards another world.
Times change! I forget for a while Figuration and I let me go towards exploration…
The contemplation of Colour stimulates the imagination and observation allows ceaseless and surprising discoveries. What does the color tell us? What fantasies, desires or plenitude do we feel in such an intimacy? Sky blue, yellow solar, red passionate, the nuances colour our thoughts, our hopes".