The sea and sailing still inspire Olivier Messas who continues to paint his sailing ships suspended between sky and sea in 2021. Pushed by the wind on a sailboat... This series is inspired by a sailing trip in the south of France, between the island of Porquerolle and Saint-Tropez... "I know the skies bursting into lightning, and the waterspouts, and the surf and the currents: I know the evening, the exalted dawn as well as a people of doves, and I have seen sometimes what man thought he saw! "Rimbaud's "Le bateau ivre" (The Drunken Boat) may have inspired this series where it is a question of travel and sailing ships, but not only... As a passenger in his boat, prisoner and willing, adventurer of sensations that are sometimes gentle, sometimes strong, Olivier lets himself be carried away by the wind and sets sail towards the unknown.
He is not afraid of the implacable hazards of nature but, on the contrary, lets himself be seduced by all its merciful energies and intoxicated by the wind, the water and the time. His paintings recreate the ancestral pleasures of being on the water, of listening to the silence of the sea, of dreaming about the little blue music of the waves mixed with that of the wind in the sails. But with this "Spirit of Sailing" series, it is above all about life: we are all captains on a long course, when pushed by the wind, when it knocks against the sails and the sailboat leans suddenly at sea level and we want to reach its port. We are all reckless sailors, sailing in rough seas, buccaneers jostled by waves and troughs, trying to hang on and not sink.
Scared of drowning, we manoeuvre, we try to keep control of our boat so that it doesn't tip over, because of a too big wave or a too violent gust that would tear our sails. Our life is a long sailboat that we must constantly balance... With this series, " Esprit voile ", Olivier, invites us to make the part of things, not to be afraid, to choose the important, not to be swallowed up by the small things, and just to move forward, on our drunken boat... Written by W. Willebrod Wegimont, author, scriptwriter. ]
