Reef Study

About Reef Study

This colourful abstract acrylic painting on paper by Paul Fournier is reminiscent of tropical waters.

In the 1960s, Paul Fournier spent several weeks living on a boat and diving amidst the coral reefs of the Bahamas. Swimming in azure blue waters through clouds of brilliantly coloured sea life fired his imagination and affected his style of painting for decades. This elegant composition recalls the rainbow of colours and fluid forms he saw. They are expressed here in gestural brushstrokes of purple, blue, red, yellow, pink, and green that float across a soft blue backdrop. Like the sea that inspired it, this piece pulsates with energy in joyful colours.

“There’s no horizon line down there. When I saw the reefs just alive with colour…it was magical…I just wanted to paint pictures that didn’t mimic the coral reef but were teaming with the same interest and life.” Paul Fournier

“Fournier’s passionate dialogue with both nature and the stuff of painting links even his most diverse works. No matter how potent the allusion, Fournier, as a highly intuitive artist with a profound belief in the expressive power of his materials, always makes us aware of the sensuality of paint, the excitement of the act of painting.” Karen Wilkin, Art Critic

Paul Fournier was born during the Great Depression in Simcoe, Ontario. He first studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1959 and went on to study printmaking at McMaster University in Hamilton in 1967. Fournier also received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in 1996, where he’d also been the artist in residence. He became a member of a group of artists in Toronto who were mentored by Jack Bush and together explored modernist expressionism. During a career that spans six decades, Fournier has had solo exhibitions in several Canadian cities and in the U.S. His work is held in private collections in North and South America and Europe. Public collections include the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington.