“Nobody can resist the charm and poetry
of the Provencal landscapes of Estivalet.” So begins a recent
review of an exhibition of the work of Elisabeth Estivalet, a painter
whose transcendent evocations in oil of Provence, in the South of
France, are winning not only estatic praise, but prizes and honors
wherever they are shown.
But no one who has seen Estivalet’s work
can be surprised by her growing international reputation. Under
her touch, light and color achieve a subtle harmony that speaks
of the perfect mastery of her medium - of her art. It is the quality
of light and color that Cezanne himself extolled when he chided
others for painting only likeness of nature, instead of a portion
of nature itself. And “a portion of nature itself” is
precisely what Estivalet brings to light in her marvelously luminous
canvase - that portion which seems to embody the poise and serenity
of gentle rolling hills, sun-swept villages and the pleasures of
winding country roads.
These are the hills, villages and roads
of Estivalet’s beloved adopted home in the South of France,
a home she moved to in 1978 from Poland, where she was born. Though
trained in philosophy and economics, Estivalet found in the countryside
of Provence the inspiration that ignited her longstanding passion
for painting and she set to work to master the uncompromising medium
of oil painting. Working with a palette knife only, she soon began
to create canvases of such poetic beauty that galleries, collectors
and juries, in France and abroad, were singing her praises and honoring
her efforts with prizes and exhibitions. As a result, Estivalet’s
paintings are now in collections in the U.S., Great Britain, Switzerland,
Venezuela, South Africa and Australia. Every day, as her stature
and reputation increases, her body of collectors, both public and
private, only grows.
