More than 40 years ago Joseph’ÄëEmile Muller described Wassily Kandinsky in his book Modern Art as having a "truculent vitality restrained by a strong regulatory spirit." While these words were written about Kandinsky they apply equally well to Sylvie Cloutier not only because the sentiments ring true but also because Kandinsky along with Joan Miro have been her strongest influences.
Cloutier needs all the energy and vitality she can muster because along with being an abstract painter she also teaches art in high school and works for a number of humanitarian causes.
As she herself says, "How could I not devote myself totally to what 1 am doing, it has been my dream since I was twelve when I told my mother that I would be artist and an art teacher."
As a child Cloutier was encouraged to develop her artistic talents and she became particularly interested painting. She studied art until she had her degrees in both fine arts and in education. Her training led to her doing a lot of research in the field of painting. But it wasn't until 1985 that her real career as a painter started when she began to explore geometric forms. She still recalls a solo exhibition at the Balcon d'art in St.Lambert where she was gnawed by doubt, asking herself what kind of reception the public would give her work.
But the reaction was favourable and by 1987 she had decided to devote herself to abstraction and opted to follow type of painting that manipulated form and color staying away from figurative work.
As she worked she developed her own techniques. She follows Jackson Pollack in that she likes to work with her canvas flat. She puts design on hold and works through instinct and spontaneity using geometric forms and coIlage.
Her work goes through many stages. To begin with she draws simple geometric forms like circles, squares and rectangles. Then she makes collages with different types of paper in different forms, to provide the composition with structure and to create relief. At times she wilI also use stencils to create repetitive patterns. Finally, to intertwine areas of significant relief she will apply colour directly from the tube to the canvas. When she has reached this stage she allows movement and gesture to take control where the first movement gives birth to the second and so she creates circles, spirals and lines which take us to the stars. She also adds music to her creative mix to provide her movements with rhythm.
