Gaétan Caron (artist and co-owner of Lost Art Salon):
Collecting fine art through Lost Art Salon mixed with the intimate relationship I have with Northern California continually inspires me to work on my personal creative expression. Photography and oil painting have proven to be my preferred ways to express my connection to the land and document the beauty of inland Mendocino. The lengthy process of one medium over the immediacy of the other strike the right balance for me. Oil paint applied to a canvas reminds me of the meditative nature of hand molding clay, my first passion within the art world, and photography allows me to capture those unique moments when seasons are traveling through their cycles setting the light in harmony with the time of the day. I use the camera to reinvigorate painting, and my photography is in return enriched by the dialogue with painting.
2012 was a continued exploration into the world of abstract photography derived from nature using a new micro lens that enables me to get really close to my chosen motifs. The colors vary from bright and rich to neutral monochromatics found in barks, lichens, fruit, flowers, branches, weeds and grasses. 2012 was also the first time I visited Paris since I took on the art of painting with oil. My biggest surprise was the attraction I felt for the works of Impressionist painter Claude Monet (whom I was familiar with, of course, but had not had the recent experience of seeing his work in person). In addition to reading all I could on Monsieur Monet, I delved deeper into art history research on landscape paintings throughout ages and studied particularly the Group of Seven (The Algonquin School from Canada), the Hudson River School, several Maine landscape artists, George Inness, William Turner, Claude Lorrain, Arthur Mathews, and the Barbizon school of French painters.
I enjoy experimenting with the results I get from the technique of layering oil thinned with turpentine combined with impasto for texture to strike a balance between abstraction and figuration.
Number
nine of a rural French-Canadian family of 10, Gaétan grew up in Québec,
Canada. In 1999, he immigrated to San Francisco where he co-founded Lost Art Salon
while helping his life partner restore their Mendocino heritage fruit orchard that
was established by Portuguese settlers at the Turn-of-the-Century. This place is the center of his inspiration, creativity and spirituality – he calls it "The Land".
