Trio Exhibition - Water, Earth, Sky

Bernard Reynier, Véronique Bonnardel and Sylvie Flour,
Passionate about travel - Brazil, China, India, Ireland, Italy - and the great outdoors, this family trio have never stopped exploring, sketchbooks in hand, the paths of mountain lakes, the torrents and forests of the Ubaye Valley so dear to their hearts, right down to the cliffs and abysses of the Mediterranean. Faced with their paintings, drawings and engravings, somewhere between figuration and abstraction, the visitor discovers here the movement of the sea and its creatures, there a mineral wall in ochre tones, then a pine tree clinging to the rock. All set against the beautiful marine backdrop of the port of La Ciotat.

Bernard Reynier
Visual artist

The landscape (from the mountains to the sea) is a place of meditation that encourages us to find our place in the universe.
I'd like to quote the artist-educator here: ‘Dialogue with nature remains a sine qua non, the artist is man, he is himself nature, a piece of nature in the midst of nature’.
‘All becoming is based on movement’. Paul Klee 1925.
I draw and paint only from memory. For this reason I feel close to oriental landscape painters. All pictorial techniques are at the service of the energy that circulates between ‘images’ and abolishes time.

Véronique Bonnardel
Artist, draughtswoman, engraver and painter

"...This is where graphic metamorphoses are born: in engraving I see a mineral storm, pine trees spreading their bunches of needles in a flood of light. There can be no landscape without looking at it. I like to position myself, moving around to find my point of view, flying over the criss-crossed territory or lying in wait under the trees. This field
of observation is a source of writings, signs and traces...".
"...I concentrate, then, without any preparatory drawing, I attack the metal directly with drypoint. The board must already have lived... I need scratches, a mark of time to get started. The point barely scratches the copper, my hand plays with the pressure to find just the right flaw, the curve of a pine, the balance of transparencies and velvety tones...".
V. Bonnardel - Extracts from article n°177 of Nouvelles de l'Estampe
2001 - Propos de graveurs - Revue du comité national de la gravure française.

Sylvie Flour
Painter

To understand my inspirations, you have to look into my background: a childhood between the sea and the mountains, where nature never ceases to be a source of wonder and well-being... a very young respect for this unique and precious environment through hiking and snorkelling... travels and long stays in faraway lands, where each natural place nourishes me with all its beauty... then the alarming realisation that the earth is fragile and being damaged every day by man... and the need to raise awareness through my artistic work of the urgent need to protect our planet. ... and so the need arose to use my art to raise awareness of the urgent need to protect our planet.
‘It is a sad thing to think that nature speaks and mankind does not listen’. Victor Hugo
‘Cultivate your love of nature, for it is the only way to better understand Art.’ Vincent van Gogh

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