Marguerite Robichaud Over Yonder

Marguerite Robichaux Over Yonder

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Marguerite Robichaux’s recent paintings and drawings, on view at The University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor from April 2 through June 19, 2004, are poetically evocative works that capture the rural and woodland landscapes of Western Maine. Robichaux displays a sensitivity to complex patterns of light and texture while applying thin translucent layers of oil paints that she gradually moves into representations of trees, mountains, sky, and space. Her images set a scene of tranquil repose and soft moments of quietude interrupted only by the contrasting lines of the trees and their branches.

Robichaux travels throughout the mountains and woods, often sitting at the edge of a roadway to sketch or paint tiny watercolor studies. In these she captures the values and textures of light that play on the surfaces of the land. Back in the studio, the sketches unfold and expand as they are combined to form complete graphite studies on linen which then lead into the large-scale oil paintings. She transposes the landscapes onto canvas panels using thinned oil paint as fluid as watercolor, often so thin it drips and runs down the surface. Utilizing quick, confident brushstrokes, her final paintings echo the looseness of her original sketches. However, her technique is meaningful and deliberate, “Some people look at these marks and ask if I intend to fix the flaw, but what I am trying to show is that what they are looking at is not a tree, but a painting of a tree.”

Originally from Louisiana, Marguerite Robichaux first came to Maine in the early 70s and now lives near the Bigelow Mountain Range. She received her M.F.A. from Louisiana State University. Her paintings are included in the collections of the State House in Augusta, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Portland Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Museum, Colby and Bates Colleges, as well as many private and corporate collections.