Antique

Denis Nolet

Denis NOLET was born in Quebec in 1964. Beginning his study of art at the age of nine, NOLET was able to experiment with various styles of painting early on, finding his own unique genre in a fusion of his influences and establishing himself as an artist by the time he was only twenty.

Preferring moonlight to sunlight, NOLET paints scenes saturated with the romance of the night. With a brushstroke suggestive of Seurat and a palate of infinite hues, NOLET creates a mirage of his medium wherein he seems to transform the oil paint into soft, smooth, cloth. The finished painting almost appears as if it were dyed rather than painted. This illusion of a delicate fabric in place of canvas makes NOLET's work all the more sentimental. It is only upon closer inspection of the work that brushstrokes become visible and the piece can be more certainly deciphered as an oil painting.





While keeping the paintings somewhat ambiguous with anonymous silhouettes and mysterious, yet familiar, locations the viewer is easily carried away into NOLET'S idyllic world. Despite his varying compositions, all of NOLET's work contains a common theme of universal romanticized urbanism. Whether the picture reveals a couple dancing on a rooftop or embracing in a misty evening beneath the street lights in the quaint streets of an idealized French-flavored city, NOLET's paintings exude the exhilaration present in any moment containing passion. Amid a crowd, or alone on a balcony, NOLET's couples draw the viewer in, encouraging the onlooker to dream of what was, what is, or what could be, love.