18. Gaston De Vel
Pont D'ucel, Aubenas
Oil on canvas
37.5 x 45 cm
Signed & dated 1996
est. $1,500 - 2,500
Fetched $600
Relative Size: Pont D'ucel, Aubenas
Relative size

Provenance: Artist's Estate Collection

Belgium born De Vel spent his student years at the Academie Royal des Beaux Arts, Brussels, which he attended at age 17 from 1941 to 1945. I was taught to paint directly from life, so I could learn to visualise things as an artist in colour, just like the Impressionists. Now these lessons are in my blood, a part of me. One of his most in uential tutors was Alfred Bastien, a friend of Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent. Gaston believes he was one of the last painters to have been taught in the classical and impressionistic fashion by a tutor directly involved with some of the leading artists of that movement. In 1960 he arrived in New Zealand from the Belgium Congo with nothing but peace and safety - it was worth losing everything just for that, Gaston said in an interview with the Auckland Star. He was awarded the Kelliher Art Prize in 1968. The 1980s saw several sellout exhibitions in Auckland and at Lewis Paape Gallery, Lower Hutt. Gaston's work is part of the permanent collection of Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

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