A lan Mercel-Sanca’s lush and intricate drawings often focus on woodland and forest scenes. Shying away from major landmarks, Mercel-Sanca draws attention instead to small local sites, or to those comparatively unknown spaces around famous areas. Born in the United Kingdom, the artist is heir to the nation’s tradition of working directly in front of nature in graphite or in watercolor, and his work has strong affinities with that of historical luminaries J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Girtin. Like his eighteenth- and nineteenth-century predecessors, Mercel-Sanca has traveled widely, creating work based on locations in British Columbia, Italy, and Japan. The artist’s virtuoso technique allows him to capture stunning nuances of light and shade, and to recreate on paper varied effects of sunlight on objects as diverse as leaves, rocks, bark, and water. His works frequently radiate light, and are suffused with a sense of mystery and magic. Denying any intended message or abstract concept behind his works, Mercel-Sanca seeks only to capture his subject and the emotions he feels in front of it. He “sincerely believes, with deep conviction, that to be an artist is a True Spiritual vocation, and that the more the artist is inspired by the awesome Nature of Creation (its Harmony and Splendour), the greater will be the fluency and evocative character of his or her creative work.” Alan Mercel-Sanca’s art reflects this reverence for nature and all its diversity.

P atrice Goubeau creates highly individualistic and fantastical paintings with subjects that often stem from his inventive imagination. Mythical hybrids populate magical landscapes full of bright lights and unidentifiable forms. Deeply influenced by the legacy of Surrealism, the distant influence of De Chirico is clearly felt in many of Goubeau’s scenes. Like the Italian master, he is interested in the idea of suspended time, stating, “All my paintings tell a story where ‘Suspended Time’ is present. Everything becomes possible, no borders exist between life and death, dream and reality, black and white, sun and shadow.” Goubeau attempts to reach a higher plane of consciousness in his works, seeing painting as a form of meditation that can allow access between the past, present, and future. He allows himself complete freedom in exploring esoteric themes, and many of his works feature strange architecture or spaces, positioning viewers as voyagers to these foreign lands. His focus on stone buildings is also a reference to his father, who was a mason who renovated castles and passed on his love of well-honed craftsmanship to his son. Encouraged by his father, Goubeau uses his art to “try to fight against sadness and fate.”