Born in Uruguay, Gaston Valin paints through profound interest and vocation. Asked to name the greatest influence on his untutored painting style he replies unequivocally: “Matisse.” The viewer can certainly perceive the tremendous influence of Henri Matisse in the way Valin explores every detail of design and pattern in the fabrics, floor and wall coverings, in the interiors surrounding the figures and objects he paints. The artist gives these details a life of their own and evokes the tranquility, solitude, intimacy, and warmth found in the oils of Impressionists Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, utilizing however the deep colour and strong line reminiscent of Matisse. Intense, expressionist colour –particularly yellow—predominates in all of his painting and though it may always be likened to European painting in the early 1900s, it denotes the strength of the light south of the equator that so many artists in South America have captured in twentieth-century painting. In works beginning in 2002, yellow continues to predominate, however in a more diffuse form, Valin having changed his palette to create a brighter, whiter light that creates a hazy atmosphere in marine scenes that are sometimes combined with his known imagery of villages or houses with red roofs. The new atmospheric work combined with a blurring of outline and erasing of foreground/background affect the subject matter so that it is abstracted somewhat, recalling in some of the new pieces the work of Milton Avery. More recently, in 2006, Valin begins working with new subject matter and color. He turns to intense, bright tones and hues and while he continues portraying boats and ports, they are now less idyllic, more industrial and modern. He further abstracts his subject matter, and while his signature black outline is still apparent, the composition is a denser, dynamic geometric play, less serene than in previous works, but no less captivating. Gaston Valin currently lives and works in Katonah, New York.

Group Exhibits
Building Boats+Bridges, Solar, East Hampton, NY, March 2007
LINE.COLOR.FORM, Solar, East Hampton, NY, August 2005
Clayton-Liberatore Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY, July 2002
Clayton-Liberatore Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY, August 2001

Solo Exhibits
Estancia, Solar, East Hampton, NY, November 2003
Marine, Solar, East Hampton, NY, August 2002
Passages, Solar, East Hampton, NY, December 2001