The artist’s next solo exhibition will take place at Galerie La Cascade, in Salles-la-Source, from October 12 to November 17.
His Francis Perrin-style face with his short white beard surrounding it is reminiscent of that of the Impressionist masters, especially when his gaze seems on the lookout for the slightest variations in contrasts that punctuate the day. It is in his beautiful property near Marcillac-Vallon that Guy Sounillac explores the pictorial themes that accompany his artistic career. To big cities, he prefers nature, wide open spaces, fishing, hunting… and he does not hesitate to lead us to discover his sumptuous seasonal landscapes. His paintings remind us of this reality where light remains the common thread of all pictorial work.
From his garden, the painter, who practices and excels in the art of pointillism, watches for the slightest change in Mother Nature, with a nuance of color that can disappear in a few moments. Thus, all the ingredients are there: the opacity gradually becomes transparent and a stream of water can be transformed into a long, quiet river under its palette. Obviously, the countryside is transformed under the master’s brushes, where the bright hues bring luminosity to the work.
Each painting is thus revealed by its brilliance, its depth and its space of escape, inviting the viewer to enter the canvas and explore it. This is why Guy Sounillac is preparing his next exhibition which will take place at the Galerie La Cascade, in Salles-la-Source, from October 12 to November 17. The artist who is also the initiator of the creation of this gallery will present around fifty works covering two main themes, namely: the Lot valley and the wide open spaces of Aubrac that the artist wants to prioritize. The painter specifies that this will be his very last personal exhibition.
A professional journey
By his third year in college, Guy had specific visions of his future, where his interest was focused on graphics, painting and drawing. The year is 1955. His parents enroll him in an arts and crafts school in Seine-et-Marne. Three choices are available to him: plasterer (plaster reproduction), art ceramist or decorative painter. Guy will choose the latter option.
The range of the painter-decorator profession targeted the restoration of paintings with gilding, patina, faux wood and faux marble. “In these artistic professions, it was only the big cities that offered all these possibilities, whether it was theater decor or graphic design.”
After a few years, the great need to explore nature became vital for this young artist. So back to square one, in his hometown, Figeac. “To consider a future in my profession was to withdraw into oneself. But one of the aspects that I had studied and practiced was advertising and decor.”
Thanks to the Rodez exhibition fairs which took place every five years (the cultural and commercial event par excellence), Guy was contacted by the president of the craftsmen’s union, during the large public market of 1965.
The young artist, freshly arrived in Rodez, will never leave again.
After his marriage, the same year he created his decoration company with the company name Publi 12. A specialty that did not exist at that time: equipping vehicles with advertising signs for businesses, ensuring the manufacture of panels road signs, signage, creating signs for facades…
The Aveyron city becoming more and more an important strategic center, Guy Sounillac had no difficulty in irrigating several departments, such as Lozère, Lot, Cantal and part of Tarn, up to Albi.
He also trained around twenty apprentices, some of whom became his main competitors a few years later.
“Holding a brush all week and sometimes 7 days a week, I had other aspirations on Sunday than to paint again” quips the artist. But the time of retirement will lead him towards easels and canvases.
Birth of the Pont des Arts in Marcillac
Freed from all professional constraints and after selling his business, Guy was looking for a place to present his work. Permanently residing in the Vallon, he discovered, in the heart of Marcillac, the old mill lying wasteland. Given the importance of the building, an oversized premises, he then had the idea of creating an association: “I called for the gathering of my friends, who were Valentin, Alvarez, Corbel, Cavagnac…”
Together they created, in 2008, Le Pont des Arts, which for around fifteen years became a real crossroads between artists and amateurs. “There are influences that stand out and that I’m analyzing now.“At a very young age, Guy was inspired by the work of Jean Lurçat in Saint-Céré and thus all the work of tapestry. “Today, I understand that my taste for pointillism, for example, ties in a little with the tapestry.”
Like the painters of the 1960s, Guy Sounillac will always remain very influenced by graphics. “In the evolution of my work, after having touched on abstraction, all forms of painting and schools, I returned to impressionism and the figurative, without forgetting my taste for nature. I oriented myself towards the pictorial landscape and pointillism, little by little, offered itself to me. I worked a lot with the point, I will look for the shadows and the light thanks to the different colors. dark, the more we deepen the shadows, the opposite of light shades which catch the light.”
“The perfect weapon of oil paints”
During 2015, Guy Sounillac with his friend Maurice Subervie, produced joint exhibitions on the theme of pictorial pointillism and photographic pixels.
These “Instants d’Aubrac” exhibitions were presented in Montpellier, Toulouse and Sainte-Geneviève-sur-Argence, causing real confusion among spectators between paintings and photographic images. Strong similarities appeared between these two creation techniques. It is all this play that is reflected in the work of Guy Sounillac who explains: “The search for light remains essential for the painter. These different pictorial techniques generate creation and creation is influenced by the technique. All of this overlaps.” The artist who works mainly with oil painting specifies: “Given my training as a decorator, I use glazes a lot, unlike matte paints, acrylic, for example, whose transparencies are difficult to exploit. Glazes remain the perfect weapon for oil paints .”.
Since 1998, at the Foch gallery in Rodez, Guy Sounillac has held numerous exhibitions in Aveyron and outside the departments: Toulouse, Portet-sur-Garonne, Paris (where he remains a member of the movement Critical figuration), Neuilly-sur-Seine, Lyon, Aurillac, Figeac, Montpellier, but also abroad: Casarès in Spain and Dortmund in Germany.
Also, for his next exhibition entitled “A point that’s all!”, the public is expected in large numbers at the opening, Saturday October 12, from 6 p.m., at the Galerie de la Cascade, in Salles-la-Source, at 111, route de Conques. A great discovery and a wonderful journey not to be missed under any circumstances.
The gallery is open on Saturdays and Sundays, from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. or by appointment on 06 71 53 34 04. Contact : galeriedelacascade.com
