Michelle Margueray


Michel Margueray is a French landscape painter born in 1938 in Normandy, northwestern France. He began drawing in childhood, developing his artistic sensibility amidst the rich natural landscapes of Normandy.

Works→

He was strongly influenced by Impressionist painters Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, establishing a style that depicts everyday scenes with classical composition and Impressionistic bright light and color. His works, expressed with delicate brushwork and a sure sense of color, evoke the light and air of nature, along with a quiet poetic sentiment.

Margueray's paintings are often described as expressions of "eternally happy moments." In his works, everything is bathed in soft light, and the gentle emotions found in nature are delicately depicted. Forest paths, seasides, and street corners evoke the pleasant sensation of a summer stroll, inviting viewers into a tranquil dream world.

His works are highly regarded as figurative paintings that inherit the tradition of French art, creating unique, clear compositions through their beauty of form, fluent tones, and accents of color. The meticulously rendered surfaces, down to their texture, convey a poetic world rich in color, even while depicting realistic landscapes.

Margueray has held numerous solo exhibitions both in France and internationally, achieving success in galleries around Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, known as one of Europe's premier high-end gallery districts, becoming one of the most popular landscape painters in the French art world.

He is also a member of the major French art organizations, the Société des Artistes Français (Society of French Artists) and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Society of Fine Arts).

Awards

1988: Awarded by the Society of French Artists
2006: Special Award for Arts, Sciences, and Culture

Solo Exhibitions

  • Suston Gallery (USA)

  • Phoenix Gallery (USA)

  • Héroult Gallery (Paris)

  • Galerie Comparaison (Paris)

  • Galerie Boudin (Rouen)

  • Galerie Ammon (Le Havre)

  • Galerie Lographe (Nancy)

Univers des arts, April 2009

Margueray: The Modest Charm of Landscape Painting

Margueray's work is not merely a story of painting. It is also a story of journeys, of coming and going to places that are important to him. The existence of the places he loves is a characteristic of his art and its uniqueness. He needs to visit cities, wildernesses, and ports. He needs to go to the location of his subject, confront the landscape, and feel the colors, nuances, light, and scent. This attitude is the true source of his creativity. Whether it's Venice, Saint-Briac, Menton, or Honfleur, his vitality and style of figurative painting remain consistent. Expressing what he feels means conveying to the canvas the emotion that the splendor of nature bestows upon him. With precise and sensitive touches, he gently and delicately brings out the subject. One can feel the love for that landscape. His deep affection for his favorite themes is also proof of his intimate dialogue with nature. Margueray is an outstanding landscape painter who knows all about the white attire of snow, the gentleness of stillness, and the hues of twilight. He walks through lavender fields, wildernesses, and their paths, trying to capture the atmosphere. He tries to capture on canvas the delicate and warm atmosphere, the wild harmony emitted by the sky and hills, beaches and villages. The figures in Margueray's paintings are drawn with accurate proportions, lending warmth to the landscape, but the sea and boats, trees and houses are undoubtedly still the main themes.Author: Françoise Céligini



 

Univers des arts, Summer 2005 issue 

Michel Margueray: Clear Light

 Michel Margueray's choice is as clear as a summer sky. That choice is to depict nature in its pristine clarity. However, the glowing colors of poppies and the innocent snowy landscapes, due to their fleeting nature, evoke the painter's desire to eternalize them on canvas. The charm of our planet is depicted so vividly that one is surprised why this miraculous beauty had not been noticed before. 

Through his talent, Margueray makes us gaze at things we see but don't actually notice. The painter lets us know how wonderful it is to breathe the scent of flowers, to feel the pleasant wind rustling the sails of a yacht, and to gaze at the shimmering surface of the sea.

Margueray is surrounded by rich everyday landscapes, which he expresses in harmony down to the smallest detail. With delicate and precise touches, the painter knows how to accurately depict what he wants to portray. With patience and affection, the painter's clear gaze contemplates village paths, yachts in port, and adjusts the distant values to emphasize perspective, or intensifies the nuances of the sky to maintain the overall atmospheric unity of color. Michel Margueray's work can be seen as proof of his artistic gentleness and the endless richness of the world around us.

 


 

Michel-Margueray, Univers des arts 2007 06 

The city of Condé-sur-Noireau opens its municipal museum. To commemorate the opening, a 50th-annanniversary exhibition of Michel Margueray's artistic career will be held.Margueray was born in Landeronde, Normandy in 1938. He began painting in childhood and became a painter. Since 1992, the city of Condé-sur-Noireau has hosted painting and sculpture exhibitions, and Margueray became one of the founders of this salon, exhibiting annually. Margueray is popular not only in France but also in the United States, where he regularly holds exhibitions, and has also been introduced in Japan in recent years. Michel Margueray is indeed a talented painter with a strong artistic individuality and pictorial charisma. From his paintings, one can feel his attachment to his motifs and his passion for transforming them into his own poetic world of colors. Faced with nature, Margueray is an inexhaustible source of inspiration. To borrow the artist's own words: "Each landscape, each element of nature, is constantly changing. The artist's impression also changes. Therefore, even when painting the same landscape, the approach varies from time to time. One must feel the atmosphere, capture the emotion, and reconstruct the painting. In other words, it is also necessary to break free from the initial impression and go beyond the visible world." Margueray became a poet who sings of the seasons and the everyday landscapes that surround him, and also a reporter of quiet life. In any case, the Michel Margueray 50th-anniversary exhibition, commemorating the opening of the Charles Léandre Museum in Condé-sur-Noireau, will not only satisfy his long-time fans but also teach us that true art brings happiness.

 

Univers des arts magazine, Summer 2002 issue

 Michel Margueray:  

Michel Margueray is a member of the Society of French Artists and the National Society of Fine Arts, and is active both in France and abroad.Even if one tries to convey the image of this painter on a single page, it is impossible to capture the entirety of his artistic adventure, which began in his childhood.

Magritte's comment about his work, "I feel something close to poetry," perfectly expresses the essence of his painting. The landscapes he paints are more routine than breathing for him, scenes he has known since childhood, which he can paint "with his eyes closed," so to speak.

He wanders through various places, exploring coasts, paths, and ports, and with gentleness and modesty, he finds places that evoke emotion. "High Tide," "Cabin," and "Return from Fishing" are scenes of everyday tranquility, fixed on canvas as if cherishing fleeting happy moments. 

Patrice de la Perrière